S02.E08: Fifi

[Umbelina]

Maybe, maybe not.  In the scenario I offered, Chuck could have been setting him up to be the "bad one" since birth.  Out of exactly the kind of jealousy he is showing as an adult, who honestly should know better than the resentful child he used to be.

[J----av]

I think its safe to say there was a pretty good chance Jimmy would NOT "stay on the right side of the line" for long. Even when he though Chuck had his back and he thought Chuck was proud of him he was still doing shady things and was constantly tempted to be his old "Slippin Jimmy" self. It likely would have taken longer, but Jimmy was becoming Saul (or at least Slippin Jimmy) no matter what Chuck did[/quote?

Jimmy stayed on the right side, for years, working his a$$ off, not because he has any consistent virtue, but because he valued, above absolutely anything, the approval of his older brother. Chuck threw away his most effective tool in managing Jimmy.

 

 Not that we see he didn't. He was just less Saul then we are used to seeing. I mean the first episode he tried to scam the Kettleman's by faking a car accident. Even when he was doing the right thing he was still breaking the law and blackmailing people. People just seem desperate for Jimmy to be the good guy who was pushed into bad by his evil brother Chuck, but in reality Jimmy was never really a good guy and Chuck probably made the right choice not letting him work for HMM.

 

 People giving Jimmy a pass for everything he does and blaming everything on Chuck reminds me of when people used to try justify all the bad things Walt did and blame everything on Skyler 

[Bannon]

 But during that time when he was trying to fly straight he was still tempted (and did at times) do shady Saul like things all the time. Maybe if Chuck was not such an ass he would have never fully turned Saul Goodman, but Jimmy was never going to straighten out and do things by the book. Chuck or not, Jimmy loves his Saul Goodman side

We really haven't seen much of Jimmy, when he was still working in the mailroom, after Chuck brought him to Albuquerque, but before Jimmy revealed he had earned a law degree, and Chuck began freezing him out, covertly with Howard as surrogate A-hole at first, and then finally it being revealed that Chuck was the A-hole all along.  

[J----av]

Maybe, maybe not.  In the scenario I offered, Chuck could have been setting him up to be the "bad one" since birth.  Out of exactly the kind of jealousy he is showing as an adult, who honestly should know better than the resentful child he used to be.

 

 Your scenario seemed a little over the top "Chuck is horrible". I doubt Vince would make Chuck and Jimmy that black and white. One things for sure and thats Jimmy clearly LOVES the shady side of work and hates trying to fly straight and do things legally by the book. I really don't think thats because of Chuck, thats just who Jimmy is.

[Umbelina]

Well, as Chuck bemoans, "People LIKE Jimmy." 

 

You must admit, if nothing else, that Jimmy is a lot more fun to be around than Chuck.  Hell, even his wife thought that. 

 

I like Jimmy.  I may not like some of the things he does, but I like him.

I detest Chuck.  I also have not liked on thing he's done as a human being. 

 

I don't care who is the "good" one, and I definitely don't think one must be bad for the other to be good.  I just think that from all of Chucks boring soliloquies, we've learned since he hated Jimmy from the moment they brought him home from the hospital.  Did that help shape Jimmy?  How could it not?

 

Oh, and if the crew producing and writing this want me to see Chuck as a good guy?  Massive fail, and IMO, irredeemable no matter what they try to pull off now.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Umbelina

[Bannon]

 Not that we see he didn't. He was just less Saul then we are used to seeing. I mean the first episode he tried to scam the Kettleman's by faking a car accident. Even when he was doing the right thing he was still breaking the law and blackmailing people. People just seem desperate for Jimmy to be the good guy who was pushed into bad by his evil brother Chuck, but in reality Jimmy was never really a good guy and Chuck probably made the right choice not letting him work for HMM.

 

 People giving Jimmy a pass for everything he does and blaming everything on Chuck reminds me of when people used to try justify all the bad things Walt did and blame everything on Skyler 

The Kettleman thing took place AFTER Jimmy was told that his having a law degree wasn't going to allow him to work for Chuck as a lawyer, instead of being a mere mail room delivery boy.

 

I'm not giving Jimmy a pass for anything. He has done terrible things, and will do more terrible things in the future. I think he is going to have a hand in ruining HHM in the near future, and that is going to inflict awful harm on many wholly innocent HHM employees, and there is no ethical basis for Jimmy doing that.

 

It is a fact, however, that Chuck had a huge ability to manipulate Jimmy at one time, because Jimmy desperately desired his brother's approval. Now, maybe Gilligan an Co. will show Jimmy doing something awful as a mailroom employee, before he started to realize that Chuck would never approve of Jimmy, no matter what. It's a real possibility, especially since we haven't seen yet how Rebecca left the story. Until we see it, however, it is very reasonable to think that Chuck tossed away a real point of leverage he had, with regard to Jimmy's behavior, for no particularly good reason.

[J----av]

We really haven't seen much of Jimmy, when he was still working in the mailroom, after Chuck brought him to Albuquerque, but before Jimmy revealed he had earned a law degree, and Chuck began freezing him out, covertly with Howard as surrogate A-hole at first, and then finally it being revealed that Chuck was the A-hole all along.  

 

  But from what we have seen i would bet Jimmy hated trying to be good working at the mail room. Its been a a theme the whole show that Jimmy loves the scams and trickery and that he tries to stay on the straight and narrow (but finds it boring), but his Saul Goodman side is constantly calling to him. If Chuck was the good brother and got Jimmy the job at HHM, he would likely either fall off hard, or be completely miserable 

[ketose]

Jimmy is strongly goal oriented. He wanted to be a lawyer and not let Chuck or Howard know about. So he found a correspondence school willing to take him and apparently did well. He has a lot of hustle, maybe too much. Obviously, Chuck wanted Howard to keep him in the mail room. It should be interesting to see how Jimmy responded to that and how that triggered Chuck's mental breakdown.

 

Jimmy reminds me of things I saw in the Sopranos. Those gangsters shook down a lot of money and had wads of $100 bills and still did things like steal papers out of machines. Jimmy either has no use for rules that get in his way or he loves the thrill of getting away with something. The latter seems to be the case because he's used it effectively to get Kim into bed.

 

Chuck is an ass, but I can't say he's wrong about Jimmy. A chimp with a machine gun may have more fun than a chimp in a cage, but the caged chimp is probably better off.

[Bannon]

Well, as Chuck bemoans, "People LIKE Jimmy." 

 

You must admit, if nothing else, that Jimmy is a lot more fun to be around than Chuck.  Hell, even his wife thought that. 

 

I like Jimmy.  I may not like some of the things he does, but I like him.

I detest Chuck.  I also have not liked on thing he's done as a human being. 

 

I don't care who is the "good" one, and I definitely don't think one must be bad for the other to be good.  I just think that from all of Chucks boring soliloquies, we've learned since he hated Jimmy from the moment they brought him home from the hospital.  Did that help shape Jimmy?  How could it not?

 

Oh, and if the crew producing and writing this want me to see Chuck as a good guy?  Massive fail, and IMO, irredeemable no matter what they try to pull off now.

To  be fair to the character of Chuck, he is a genuinely great attorney, and, in general, a genuinely great attorney provides great value to society. The Sandpiper victims, for instance, were extremely fortunate that Jimmy showed those documents to Chuck. He is a gigantic A-hole, but even gigantic A-holes can have positive qualities.  

[J----av]

Well, as Chuck bemoans, "People LIKE Jimmy." 

 

You must admit, if nothing else, that Jimmy is a lot more fun to be around than Chuck.  Hell, even his wife thought that. 

 

I like Jimmy.  I may not like some of the things he does, but I like him.

I detest Chuck.  I also have not liked on thing he's done as a human being. 

 

I don't care who is the "good" one, and I definitely don't think one must be bad for the other to be good.  I just think that from all of Chucks boring soliloquies, we've learned since he hated Jimmy from the moment they brought him home from the hospital.  Did that help shape Jimmy?  How could it not?

 

Oh, and if the crew producing and writing this want me to see Chuck as a good guy?  Massive fail, and IMO, irredeemable no matter what they try to pull off now.

 

 They don't. He is the Skyler White of the show. An unlikable character that if you stop and think about it, is probably more in the right then our more likable protagonists. They actually go out of their way to make Chuck unlikable

 

Saul Goodman is probably the most likeable character in the BB universe. He is charming and funny. I always cheer for Jimmy and i hate Chuck. I just see that Jimmy is not a good person. Although he is a likable person.

 

 Chuck could manipulate (I don't think Chuck knows he does it) Jimmy into staying on the straight and narrow or whatever, but that would lead to Jimmy being miserable or him falling off hard which it likely did in the past. Jimmy has more fun as the lovable slime ball "criminal lawyer" then the by the books Lawyer. Thats why i think he would always kinda turn out like he is in BB

Edited April 7, 2016 by J----av

[Umbelina]

Who knows?

 

Jimmy became a lawyer, while working full time, in order to surprise and please Chuck (because he had absolutely no idea how much and for how long Chuck has been jealous and despised him.)  That's a lot.  Passing the bar is a lot.  He put in a tremendous amount of effort and why?  Did he have a burning desire to be a lawyer?  No, he wanted Chuck to be proud of him, see that he'd changed, and work along side his brother, a man he ended up spending several hours a day taking care of.

 

What did Chuck do?  Well, he stole Jimmy's case, or tried to, only Kim saved that for Jimmy. 

 

Chucks a good lawyer from what we've seen, and he did spot the RICO implications, as ANY experienced lawyer would have, but Jimmy was just starting out.  He may have got there himself, we don't know.  He would have definitely brought the case to H&M, if he worked there.  He would be seen as a rainmaker, and yes, supervised, but Chuck could not STAND that, that Jimmy did something spectacular.  He had to sabotage him. 

 

Chuck hates him, and always has, and when Jimmy finally realized that, it broke him.

[Bannon]

  But from what we have seen i would bet Jimmy hated trying to be good working at the mail room. Its been a a theme the whole show that Jimmy loves the scams and trickery and that he tries to stay on the straight and narrow (but finds it boring), but his Saul Goodman side is constantly calling to him. If Chuck was the good brother and got Jimmy the job at HHM, he would likely either fall off hard, or be completely miserable 

It's also been a theme from the beginning that Jimmy desperately desired Chuck's approval. The guy toiled in a mail room for almost a decade, for cryin' out loud. It ould have been reasonable, and smart, for Chuck to tell Jimmy that he had a job as attorney at HHM until he made one small misstep, and then see how Jimmy did. There is a pretty long history of major fraudsters, very intelligent guys, reforming, and becoming law enforcement assets, for instance They made a movie about one. starring DiCaprio and Hanks

[ketose]

The fun thing about Jimmy in Breaking Bad is that he was the first guy to really break through that charmed existence Walter had as Heisenberg. Other spoilery stuff to follow.

He found where Walter lived and worked almost instantly. He realized he was Heisenberg because of his cough. He set him up with Mike, who set him up with Gus. He laundered the money for the guys and even tried to get Skylar out of a bind He lasted longer than anyone but Jesse before being destroyed by Walter.

In a sense, Jimmy with a law degree was good for people who need a lawyer, but bad because he facilitated crime. But there are plenty of unethical lawyers out there.

[Bannon]

 They don't. He is the Skyler White of the show. An unlikable character that if you stop and think about it, is probably more in the right then our more likable protagonists. They actually go out of their way to make Chuck unlikable

 

Saul Goodman is probably the most likeable character in the BB universe. He is charming and funny. I always cheer for Jimmy and i hate Chuck. I just see that Jimmy is not a good person. Although he is a likable person.

 

 Chuck could manipulate (I don't think Chuck knows he does it) Jimmy into staying on the straight and narrow or whatever, but that would lead to Jimmy being miserable or him falling off hard which it likely did in the past. Jimmy has more fun as the lovable slime ball "criminal lawyer" then the by the books Lawyer. Thats why i think he would always kinda turn out like he is in BB

Getting off-topic, but I never understood why so many folks had such a strong dislike of the Skyler character. She was no angel, but certainly wasn't a towering villain, like her husband.

[J----av]

Who knows?

 

Jimmy became a lawyer, while working full time, in order to surprise and please Chuck (because he had absolutely no idea how much and for how long Chuck has been jealous and despised him.)  That's a lot.  Passing the bar is a lot.  He put in a tremendous amount of effort and why?  Did he have a burning desire to be a lawyer?  No, he wanted Chuck to be proud of him, see that he'd changed, and work along side his brother, a man he ended up spending several hours a day taking care of.

 

What did Chuck do?  Well, he stole Jimmy's case, or tried to, only Kim saved that for Jimmy. 

 

Chucks a good lawyer from what we've seen, and he did spot the RICO implications, as ANY experienced lawyer would have, but Jimmy was just starting out.  He may have got there himself, we don't know.  He would have definitely brought the case to H&M, if he worked there.  He would be seen as a rainmaker, and yes, supervised, but Chuck could not STAND that, that Jimmy did something spectacular.  He had to sabotage him. 

 

Chuck hates him, and always has, and when Jimmy finally realized that, it broke him.

 

 Uh... Chuck pretty clearly does not hate Jimmy. I think your hate for Chuck may be clouding your judgment. Chuck is VERY jealous of JImmy's way with people and it drives him crazy that people don't see his slippin Jimmy side and only see that charming funny Jimmy. Possibly/likely because he has seen Jimmy use his charm to take advantage of people in the past (their father) but he does not hate him. Chuck truly believes he is doing whats best for Jimmy.

 

 And you keep going on about how JImmy could have worked for HMM under Chuck etc... But can you at least acknowledge that Jimmy would be miserable and hate it? EVERYTHING shown on BCS so far has shown Jimmy has always liked to cross the line and see what he can get away with. Working at HMM under Chuck he would have to be someone he hates being. Which is why i say Chuck made the right choice (but obviously went about it wrong) and Jimmy probably would have fallen off. Even Kim didn't want to risk going into business with Jimmy and she has been great to him  

[Umbelina]

Well, luckily we now have a thread for that Bannon!  Gilligan's Islands.

 

J----av

To me it's more of a chicken and egg story.  Some obviously think the chicken came first, others the egg.  Both points can be made, and after that?  It's all opinion.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Umbelina

[J----av]

It's also been a theme from the beginning that Jimmy desperately desired Chuck's approval. The guy toiled in a mail room for almost a decade, for cryin' out loud. It ould have been reasonable, and smart, for Chuck to tell Jimmy that he had a job as attorney at HHM until he made one small misstep, and then see how Jimmy did. There is a pretty long history of major fraudsters, very intelligent guys, reforming, and becoming law enforcement assets, for instance They made a movie about one. starring DiCaprio and Hanks

 

 Well Chuck is an ass. No one is going to argue that. Even still Jimmy likely would have made that mis step, Chuck would have to let him go and Jimmy would likely fall back into slippin Jimmy. Maybe not, but i think the show has given us enough clues for us to think Jimmy would not have stayed out of trouble or would be really unhappy if he did

Getting off-topic, but I never understood why so many folks had such a strong dislike of the Skyler character. She was no angel, but certainly wasn't a towering villain, like her husband.

 

 LOL i don't know. I am one of those people that hate her, but i really can't give you a good reason why. I think its because

people cheered for Walt and she was opposing him for most of the series. Allot of the hate died down when she started working with Walt to launder the meth money, but then started up again after she gave Ted Walts money. It actually made allot of sense why she gave Ted the money, but still no one saw it like that 

Edited April 8, 2016 by J----av

[shapeshifter]

Getting off-topic, but I never understood why so many folks had such a strong dislike of the Skyler character. She was no angel, but certainly wasn't a towering villain, like her husband.

I don't understand why people hate characters at all (unless they're rapists or pedophiles etc.). I liked Walt, Saul, Skylar, Jimmy, and everyone. Well, maybe not the cousins, but they add nice color to the scenes they're in.

[Bannon]

I don't understand why people hate characters at all (unless they're rapists or pedophiles etc.). I liked Walt, Saul, Skylar, Jimmy, and everyone. Well, maybe not the cousins, but they add nice color to the scenes they're in.

I neither hate or like characters. They either interest me or they don't. Chuck is interesting to me because people with a real, if narrow, brilliance, while also having a profound stupidity, are intriguing to me.

[xyzzy]

 Uh... Chuck pretty clearly does not hate Jimmy. I think your hate for Chuck may be clouding your judgment. [snip] Chuck truly believes he is doing whats best for Jimmy.

 

Chuck may not hate Jimmy, but I don't think he's trying to do what's best for Jimmy in every case. It was one thing to convince Jimmy that two people couldn't handle a Rico case against Sandpiper--they really couldn't, and it was in the best interest of the clients to move the case to the firm. But his motivations for directly and wilfully sabotaging Jimmy are always selfish. He will endure any amount of EMR in order to keep Jimmy from being a success and has done so twice now. He barely cared about losing their newest client until Jimmy was mentioned.

 

Eternal punishment for people who have had troubled pasts isn't fair to those attempting to reform. Jimmy was so proud of himself for passing the bar and Chuck told him that he wasn't a "real lawyer." The ABA doesn't agree. If Chuck hadn't sabotaged Jimmy's efforts to work for the firm he wouldn't have felt nearly as much pressure to return to his Slippin' Jimmy ways to keep a roof over his head and himself plied with illicit after-hours cucumber water. It's notable that Jimmy didn't question his actions with respect to the Kettleman money until after he found out about Chuck's machinations. And, as I pointed out earlier, he's graduated to fraud due to his anger at Chuck for screwing Kim over just because she had allied herself with Jimmy. It's not Chuck's fault that Jimmy's committing fraud, but I don't believe that Jimmy would have leapt into the abyss without Chuck's interference. There's an almost Shakespearean sense of the tragedy of inevitability in their relationship. And, frankly, when Chuck says that he would do the same (unearth him from the space blankets, provide sustenance and support, etc.) for Jimmy if their roles were reversed, I just don't believe him. Jimmy is the type of guy who will ask his brother to take off his shoes and feel the grass between his toes, come up with ingenious ways for his brother to feel safe at work by suggesting space liners for his suits, and go out of his way for over a year to cater to his brother's illness. When Jimmy's in trouble he doesn't even think of asking Chuck for help, because he knows that all he will find there is anger, judgment, and cruelty.

[ShellSeeker]

Hey everyone,

 

The Chuck vs. Jimmy debate about who the bigger asshole is has run its course. Let's all agree that they each have their own special asshole-ish qualities, and move on.

 

Thanks!

[LilyoftheValley]

(This is not about who is the bigger asshole.)  I think that who Jimmy was and what he did is simply unforgivable to Chuck, and Jimmy just has not yet figured that out.  No matter what, Chuck can never let Jimmy have a redemption.  He is always going to find a way to stop it.  Jimmy only thinks he can do his penance and get Chuck's love and approval.  Once it dawns on him that he can never be whole again in Chuck's eyes, he will become Saul.  

[Captanne]

You're welcome, Umbelina, for the Ken reference regarding Howard.

 

The problem for me, now, is that every time I watch the actor I wonder if he's got nothing but a raised bump of neutered plastic between his legs -- because the rest of him certainly bears a striking resemblance to a 1950s molded "action" figure.  

 

https://ewgreenlee.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/ken-doll.jpg  (Nice *obliques*, there, Ken!)

Edited April 8, 2016 by Captanne

[ShadowFacts]

On a lighter note, why does Chuck keep his door unlocked?  His disability doesn't prevent him from getting up and moving about inside his electro-free house.

 

Also, does Stacey have a key to Mike's place?  Or does he also keep his door unlocked?  She came into the kitchen while he and Kaylee were working on the hose, without him answering the door.  If she doesn't have a key, that doesn't seem wise on his part, what with the twins threatening Kaylee. 

[Milburn Stone]

I was disappointed by "Howard" (in quotes because I mean the direction and, if that was the direction, then the actor is absolved, if not, then the actor is also responsible) with the whole "freeze out" methodology.  I've been a practicing tort-litigating attorney in a Major American Metropolitan Area for ten years during the 90s until 9/11 when I was activated in the National Guard, and I've seen plenty of law firm bad behaviour but nothing like that. 

 

I've never seen a named partner abuse an associate the way the character did in this story.  And having him behave like an automaton (to wit, the "stand and pose when the new fancy clients came to interview the firm" business was surreal and, imo, just plain weird.)  I emphasize abuse because humiliating her like that was emotionally abusive, automaton and weird because that's what autonomic behaviour as a practicing partner in a thriving law firm is -- plain old weird.

 

I respect your experience in the law, Captanne. My experience is that almost all of us--even the best of us--have a sadistic side that can get activated when we believe we have reason to get angry, as Howard did when Kim's perceived actions humiliated him and his firm. I've never worked in a prestigious law firm, but I have worked in and observed firms of large size and comparable prestige, and my assumption is that you'd find a comparable range of behaviors in all of them. I'm surprised that the law is an exception.

[Bannon]

I respect your experience in the law, Captanne. My experience is that almost all of us--even the best of us--have a sadistic side that can get activated when we believe we have reason to get angry, as Howard did when Kim's perceived actions humiliated him and his firm. I've never worked in a prestigious law firm, but I have worked in and observed firms of large size and comparable prestige, and my assumption is that you'd find a comparable range of behaviors in all of them. I'm surprised that the law is an exception.

What is really weird, and stupid, about it is that the employee being abused in this instance just landed an account worth millions. Have you ever seen such abuse accorded to a salesperson/account manager who did something similar? I know I haven't. That's why I think the best story resolution is HHM going over a cliff. Stupidity that profound needs a logical result.

[Milburn Stone]

What is really weird, and stupid, about it is that the employee being abused in this instance just landed an account worth millions. Have you ever seen such abuse accorded to a salesperson/account manager who did something similar? I know I haven't.

 

That part, I can agree with you on, Bannon.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Also, does Stacey have a key to Mike's place?  Or does he also keep his door unlocked?  She came into the kitchen while he and Kaylee were working on the hose, without him answering the door.  If she doesn't have a key, that doesn't seem wise on his part, what with the twins threatening Kaylee.

I once saw a demonstration on TV of a gadget that will pick a standard lock so quickly that a casual bystander would assume you had a key. It's why car keys went electronic years ago, and why Mike locking his door would barely slow down the twins.

[ShadowFacts]

I once saw a demonstration on TV of a gadget that will pick a standard lock so quickly that a casual bystander would assume you had a key. It's why car keys went electronic years ago, and why Mike locking his door would barely slow down the twins.

 

I know I'm nitpicking, but If I'm trying to protect my grandchild from some thugs who have already been inside my house once, I'm at least using a few deadbolts or security system that will alert me to another intrusion.  That's why I'm going to guess that Stacey lets herself in with a key, otherwise Salamancas can be inside and in his face before Mike could even grab his gun. 

Edited April 8, 2016 by ShadowFacts

[MaryPatShelby]

The episode reminded of classic Breaking Bad especially the opening sequence and the copy shop scenes.  Did anyone notice Howard's purple tie and the touches of purple around HHM?  A shout out to Marie?

 

 

This is a bridge too far, in my opinion!

 

Totally irrelevant, but I just had to find out if the "69 years young" line in Grimm was true - he was born in 1964, so not so much.

Thank goodness!  I couldn't believe that the actor playing Howard was 69 - I missed why someone thought he was?

[xyzzy]

Thank goodness!  I couldn't believe that the actor playing Howard was 69 - I missed why someone thought he was?

The actor was recently in an episode of Grimm where he was using magix to essentially create and sell a Fountain of Youth product/service. At one point he gets this crazed look on his face and proclaims that he's "69 years young!!"

Edited April 8, 2016 by xyzzy

[hincandenza]

This is a bridge too far, in my opinion!

 

Thank goodness!  I couldn't believe that the actor playing Howard was 69 - I missed why someone thought he was?

 

Yeah, I made the original quip on this board.  As it happens Patrick Fabian- who plays Howard, and is in reality a pretty youthful looking 51- was a guest star in last week's episode of Grimm, so it was fresh in my mind when commenting on "Fifi" just a couple of days later.  Piggybacking off what xyzzy says, he plays a doctor selling some "magix" Fountain of Youth cream, which in properly trope-ish fashion has the usual nasty side effects such as insanity and of course eventually making you incredibly ugly.  Despite it mutating him horrifically, he's now too crazy to realize and proudly boasts how he is "69 years young".  You can watch a clip of the climactic scene on YT below including this line, although the relevant part starts at 2:58.  It's actually kind of funny in that shamelessly camp way that Grimm can be at times.

 

[ketose]

Deadbolts are pretty effective, but you have to attach the plate with long screws so they go into the stud and not the door frame. The right "bump" key, with a rubber end on it, can jolt the pins in the lock so that the door is unlocked. In Mike's case, he made a deal with the Salamancas. If anything happened to Kaylee, Mike would turn state's evidence and spill everything, even if it meant him going to jail or getting killed. I don't think he'd care about his life anymore.

[RCharter]

Deadbolts are pretty effective, but you have to attach the plate with long screws so they go into the stud and not the door frame. The right "bump" key, with a rubber end on it, can jolt the pins in the lock so that the door is unlocked. In Mike's case, he made a deal with the Salamancas. If anything happened to Kaylee, Mike would turn state's evidence and spill everything, even if it meant him going to jail or getting killed. I don't think he'd care about his life anymore.

I don't think Mike much cares about his life at all.  I think he barely cared after his son died, and I think Kaylee is the only reason for anything.  I think its why I do love their scenes together.  I'm not sure he really likes Stacey, and as others have said, he may know he is getting played, but wants to stay in Stacey's good graces so he can spend time with Kaylee.

 

I think if anything happened to Kaylee, Mike would burn down the house of Salamanca to the ground.  I don't think Mike has all that much trust in the criminal justice system, I mean, he was a crooked cop, and he may have seen corruption at every level of the process.  The way he gets justice....ensures he gets justice.

[ShadowFacts]

I don't think Mike much cares about his life at all.  I think he barely cared after his son died, and I think Kaylee is the only reason for anything.  I think its why I do love their scenes together.  I'm not sure he really likes Stacey, and as others have said, he may know he is getting played, but wants to stay in Stacey's good graces so he can spend time with Kaylee.

 

I think if anything happened to Kaylee, Mike would burn down the house of Salamanca to the ground.  I don't think Mike has all that much trust in the criminal justice system, I mean, he was a crooked cop, and he may have seen corruption at every level of the process.  The way he gets justice....ensures he gets justice.

 

Good points, one and all.  Yet, there's no reason for Mike to be laissez-faire about security.  He shouldn't trust that the Salamancas will not act against him (through Kaylee), they're criminals.  And in fact he doesn't, he is after all rigging up some kind of spike strip after we've seen him surveilling their operation.  So a locked door should be part of his overall thinking.  He would surely exact revenge if anything happened to Kaylee, but that would be after the fact and too late for her.  Also, he didn't say the gun was his as Hector and he agreed to in their stand-off, so, added incentive for Mike to be careful.

[ketose]

Good points, one and all.  Yet, there's no reason for Mike to be laissez-faire about security.  He shouldn't trust that the Salamancas will not act against him (through Kaylee), they're criminals.  And in fact he doesn't, he is after all rigging up some kind of spike strip after we've seen him surveilling their operation.  So a locked door should be part of his overall thinking.  He would surely exact revenge if anything happened to Kaylee, but that would be after the fact and too late for her.  Also, he didn't say the gun was his as Hector and he agreed to in their stand-off, so, added incentive for Mike to be careful.

On the flip side, Mike saying the gun wasn't his or Tuco's increases the appearance that he was being coerced by the Salamancas. Hector made a deal, and there's no reason for him to put his nephew's life in more trouble by doing anything to Mike. There's no security, no dumb lock, that will help if they want to go after Mike if he's still living in New Mexico.  And if they do hurt him, the state has a strong case to investigate further.

 

Hector wanted Tuco out early. He got that. So what if Mike hangs around watching them? Hector could probably care less because he doesn't know Mike is a badass like the viewers do.

[ByTor]

Minor point, but does anybody say "Sarbox?" I worked in IT and did a TON of work with our corporate regulatory department, and it was always either full out Sarbanes-Oxley or Sox. Never heard anyone ever say Sarbox.

CPA here, and yes, I've heard "Sarbox" plenty of times.

[ByTor]

So, in my line of business (employee benefits), employees with client contact (brokers, account executives, etc) usually sign contracts with non-compete clauses. Is this not part of a law firm's contract? Because as Kim was doing her thing, all I could think of was, "Does she not have a non-compete? Why does she not have a non-compete?!?!?!"

Though I wish she had taken Jimmy's Mad Men style advice and just slipped the note under the door. Especially if she didn't have a non-compete.

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. My 1st thought, actually, was that if anyone was behaving unethically, it was Kim for trying to take Mesa Verde from HHM.

[queenanne]

I was thinking exactly the same thing.  Don't they notice that old guy with the binoculars in the car across the street?  I would think this scene would involve the willing suspension of disbelief.  In real life, former cop Mike would probably be parked much further away or be on a rooftop but it would be much harder to get a shot of Mike and the "crime scene" for the TV screen.

 

This has always bugged me nuts about any visual medium, because I notice every motion in a wide array.  I have no desire to, but I'm the person who sees every fly, waterbug, etc., even while the peripheral vision interruption is silent.  "Hey wait a second, nothing is supposed to be moving there."  My friend in fact used to try to stump me by hiding/gliding himself into places like the subway, trying to see if I'd suss out the potential danger threat to me.  Directors/writers have even tried to convince me multiple times that Person A wouldn't notice, like, a black-clad person moving about a desert fraught with only stones and cacti.  Isn't happening.  I feel in any lineup of mostly empty parked cars without limo-blackened windows I'd see a denizen, or at least look twice at them.

 

Agree except that Chuck is not mentally stable.  I don't think Kim could handle the Mesa Verde work by herself, but it felt a little sleazy for Chuck to be going on and on about how much he knew about banking compliance, and leaving out the part about how he has to stay at home because he thinks he's allergic to electricity.

 

While to some extent I find this completely realistic based upon law firms and corporations I have known which treat telecommuting about the same way as you'd treat being presented with a box of farts; it is a valid working method.  To some extent TPTB need to hang a lantern on Chuck's weirdness being discovered, because there's nothing odd in and of itself for a senior/named partner to work somewhere that isn't the office.

[henripootel]

And WTF is Mike making with that hose?

Whatever it is, I think it's gonna end with Hector Salamanca in that wheelchair.  Gonna be interesting to see how Mike does that without them knowing it was him.

Edited April 12, 2016 by henripootel

[Umbelina]

This has always bugged me nuts about any visual medium, because I notice every motion in a wide array.  I have no desire to, but I'm the person who sees every fly, waterbug, etc., even while the peripheral vision interruption is silent.  "Hey wait a second, nothing is supposed to be moving there."  My friend in fact used to try to stump me by hiding/gliding himself into places like the subway, trying to see if I'd suss out the potential danger threat to me.  Directors/writers have even tried to convince me multiple times that Person A wouldn't notice, like, a black-clad person moving about a desert fraught with only stones and cacti.  Isn't happening.  I feel in any lineup of mostly empty parked cars without limo-blackened windows I'd see a denizen, or at least look twice at them.

 

I do as well.  You'd make a good SCUBA or even free diver. 

 

I learned to dive in murkier water, but I'd always see much more sea life than most of my class, because the slightest movement or flicker caught my attention.  Later I taught divers in Hawaii for a while, and some just had it, some did not.  The water was of course much clearer there, but still, you either have that sense or your don't.

 

I was only slightly bugged by Mike's surveillance in a car thing, UNTIL he pulled himself into a trap area, between the fence and the large semi trailer, which also blocked his view.  He could have been, and I think in real life, would have been dead.  I just don't buy criminals not keeping a look out, and that was an isolated place, not as easy to hide there.  Oh well.

[Bryce Lynch]

The Albuquerque Nail Hose.

Look it up on Urban Dictionary.

Never heard of it. Maybe it is like Hellman's mayonnaise. :)

[ByTor]

Or the "squat cobbler" :)

[shapeshifter]

When I first watched this episode, I saw "Fifi" either on a truck or a shop sign. Now I can't find it. Help?

I just Google translated "regalo helado" (the logo on the truck) and it translates to "frozen gift." Isn't "ice" slang for meth? Or is it heroin?

[ShadowFacts]

When I first watched this episode, I saw "Fifi" either on a truck or a shop sign. Now I can't find it. Help?

I just Google translated "regalo helado" (the logo on the truck) and it translates to "frozen gift." Isn't "ice" slang for meth? Or is it heroin?

 

Fifi was the name of the WWII plane that Jimmy was using as the backdrop for his commercial.

 

Helado is also ice cream, but I'm not sure what kind of drug is referred to as ice. 

[LuciaMia]

No synopsis of the latest episode yet?

[Cheerwyn]

I'm still trying to figure out why the episode was named after the WWII bomber.

 

(and BTW, I took my family to see her in person a few years ago. Simply amazing to get that close to such an important piece of history).

 

FiFi is the last operating B-29 in the world.  Maybe it's meant to be a reference to things or ways of doing things dying out. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

[shapeshifter]

I'm still trying to figure out why the episode was named after the WWII bomber.

(and BTW, I took my family to see her in person a few years ago. Simply amazing to get that close to such an important piece of history).

FiFi is the last operating B-29 in the world. Maybe it's meant to be a reference to things or ways of doing things dying out. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

In the Speculation & Contingency thread, someone rearranged the season's titles to make an amagram acrostic that spells Fring's Back that uses FiFi for Fring: http://forums.previously.tv/topic/22800-speculation-contingency-planning/page-4#entry2130661 Edited April 16, 2016 by shapeshifter

[ByTor]

I just Google translated "regalo helado" (the logo on the truck) and it translates to "frozen gift." Isn't "ice" slang for meth?

Yes. http://www.narconon.org/drug-abuse/effects-of-ice.html

[SignGuy77]

In the Speculation & Contingency thread, someone rearranged the season's titles to make an amagram that spells Fring's Back that uses FiFi for Fring: http://forums.previously.tv/topic/22800-speculation-contingency-planning/page-4#entry2130661

Acrostic, to be precise. :)