Better Call Saul - Season Four Discussion & Digestion

Doesn't it seem odd to introduce a new, major, continuing character near the end of the season?

 

I'm with the showrunners--I was thinking this morning that one more season would be enough for me.

 

I've been up in these ceilings, too, running some wire for my father. It's pretty cramped and you have to be careful.

I'm just saying that he trusted the support very quickly, having never been up there, as well as I don't see a person standing straight up in such a small space. But hey, it's a TV show. *shrug*

 

I thought the same. Her facial expressions during his testimony went from feigned support to genuine admiration. Her expressions in the hallway afterwards indicated her disappointment. This was, perhaps, her finest acting in the show. And Jimmie has had enough of the hypocracy and dishonesty ("not sincere enough"). He has finally broken bad.

 

A drop ceiling is just for looks. With strength you find a support. Hang on and crawl through a few feet.

 

I actually could never see that happening. That would actually be totally out of character for Mike. Sure, Mike liked Werner, but he was upfront and clear as day with Werner as to the situation at hand. Werner, unfortunately, ignored or disregarded Mike's explicit warnings.

Mike killing Gus would have nothing to do with strategy or the long-term. What did Gus propose that was actually wrong in this underworld code of conduct? Why should he kill Gus -- What would that get him? What's the end result in that?

It would be based on emotion and then what? He's on the run for the rest of his short life with no cash and his daughter in law and grand-daughter in constant danger?

Mike hated the fact that Werner had to be killed because he actually liked the guy and knew he had no real malicious intent, but considering what Werner did within Gus' expected "behavioral code," Mike knew Gus wasn't wrong.

 

I could be wrong, but I got the sense that while the initial phones he sold from inside the store were from the cell phone store's own stock, and then he also went down late at night and bought another cache of phones to do his first run of late night sales, the huge purchase (presumably using the $5,000 of Chuck money he picked up from Howard) of cell phones that were delivered in a truck were purchased by Jimmy direct from a wholesaler. I don't think Jimmy would have had any ability to actual order stock for the store he was working at, even if he was, by virtue of being alone in the store, essentially his own "shift manager."

 

Not really, for a show whose seasons are only ten episodes long. I'm glad that the show has never gone overboard in crafting gimmicky season finales. Sure, they put some amount of planning into giving each season the ending they want. But the show is so tight and punchy that I never sense they're stretching anything out or rushing through anything.

 

I just extrapolated from the mention of his getting a sales award that he was "selling" all those phones to himself through the store and collecting commission.

 

The Lalo ceiling thing is probably a stretch to some degree, but I don't think it was even as heinous as the Fring's face thing in BB (which I don't even find to be a huge issue).

But I still maintain the more curious thing about Lalo is how extreme he has acted in what appears to be almost literally like "Day One" of his surveillance/fact finding concerning Fring and his associates. He murdered a guy, chased after one of Fring's guys through town and through a parking lot (and also crashed into the Cherry Icee guy), and gave himself away even more by contacting Werner when he knew Mike had to be hot on Werner's tail.

Seems like an epic and very hasty escalation both in terms of raising the ire of Fring, and also creating too many opportunities to raise the suspicions of cops, etc.

I'm even fine with this, as long as the writing allows for plausibility as far as how Lalo continues forward in the next season. We know he isn't going to end Fring's operation, we know he isn't going to kill Fring or Mike. So I'm curious to see how his quick series of very public crimes and antagonism of Fring's operation are de-escalated. Will he actually flip on Salamanca and work with Fring? Pretty unlikely I have to assume. Will Lalo learn about Nacho working with Fring? Quite possibly. Will Lalo end up killing Nacho? I dunno. By the time of "Breaking Bad", if we assume Lalo is still alive and still part of the Salamanca operation, one would presume they've reached the sort of stasis/situation we see in BB.

I finally went back and grabbed the actual quotes from Saul's first BB episode. It implies both Nacho (Ignacio) and Lalo are still alive as of that point in Season 2 of BB (though I suppose it leaves open the possibility that Nacho isn't alive):

Jess and Walt abduct Saul and the lawyer is worried that this is the end for him. "No, it wasn't me. It was Ignacio. He's the one," Saul pleads before switching over to Spanish. When Jesse orders him to speak in English, Saul asks, "Lalo didn't send you?" And when Jesse says no, an extremely relieved Saul replied, "Oh, thank god."

However, in Season 4 of BB, Fring taunts Hector Salamanca, telling him that the entire Salamanca family apart from him (Hector) is dead. I'm not sure if this firmly means Lalo is killed "off screen" between Season 2 and 4 of BB. I'm sure there are ways around it.

 

I thought the acting in this episode was the best of this season. The sequence with the karaoke was well done, and the episode only got better. They ended a somewhat "off" season very well. Everyone wondering when Jimmy became Saul can now be satisfied. Just one line of dialogue.

 

After episode 9 I was complaining, "geez, make him Saul and end it already," so I got my wish.

 

Hard to say. I just assumed that he was selling enough to get the award, mostly off screen. I'm pretty sure that large truck load of phones was ordered by Jimmy direct. I don't think he would be able to purchase $5,000 worth of disposable cell phones for a cell phone store. Even if he immediately purchased them all himself, that would raise some flags (even with an apparently relatively hands-off "boss" that is off site). Perhaps *especially* if the store ordered a truck load of phones and then sold them all immediately.

They showed Jimmy getting the 5k check from Howard, then showed him signing for a delivery of phones from some sort of wholesaler, and taking the delivery at the salon.

Jimmy having $23K isn't too far fetched. If he sold $5K worth of phones at a significant mark-up (and especially if wasn't declaring the income or declaring sales tax and all of that as he told the copy), that could easily account for some or most or all of that $23K. He also worked a job for nearly a full year and presumably has little in the way of bills; he may not even be splitting the rent with the now presumably relatively well-to-do Kim.

$23K would be a huge chunk of change even if Jimmy had stowed away his legit income and his phone resale money, but he could swing it I would guess. I'm assuming the show doesn't want us to think *too* much about it. Money hasn't been a big issue for Jimmy since the early part of Season 1.

 

Am I missing something or is $23,000 a very cheap price for a reading room?

 

Maybe not for Albuquerque in the 90s, or whenever BCS takes place.

They should work Violet shoplifting into a scene before it's over.

 

The show is currently in the year 2004 as I recall. It began in 2002, and of course a couple episodes back they did a huge time jump from early-mid 2003.

I dunno if $23K is cheap for a reading room. It would depend on the extent of the donation/sponsorship. Was it just mostly "naming rights", or were all of the contents purchased as well?

 

...and yet he still drives a sad, beat up Suzuki Esteem that can't even be relied upon to start every time.

I find it interesting that Gilligan likes to use cars almost as characters in his shows, from Walt's Pontiac Aztek, the Esteem, Kim's green Mitsubishi Eclipse, Ernesto's blue Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII, to Nacho's AMX.

 

Chuck had a nice voice. Loved that part. It showed a warmth that has been sadly lacking.

 

Lalo's vintage Monte Carlo is nice too - Tuco drove a slightly newer one in BB. The Salamancas are Chevy fans, the cousins drove a 67 Impala, and Hector drove this awesome '60 Impala - that was a factory color called Suntan Copper:

 

I can't even really explain why, but they chose the perfect car for Mike

 

At this point, Mike is probably still paying for his daughter in law's new house. I think the grandaughter's college fund comes later; after the lab is up and running and big bucks really start co.ing in.