Better Call Saul - Season 2 discussion

Thanks for confirming my suspicions @Hot Ptah. It's good to have a couple of in-house lawyers while watching the show. @JimW, too, of course.

I hate when I try to play armchair attorney just because I've seen every season of Matlock. All I know about the law is don't break it.

 

"Must be meteric" ja ja das ist gut.

 

Nice obscure "BB" references:
"Ice Station Zebra"
and, the weird rotating pig!

 

Wow! This ^^^ is a great post.

 

Yes, no more setup, things are really getting going now. I don't know if I'd call it Jimmy screwing up, as much as Jimmy starting to show his true colors- and how that won't work in this type of firm. And as you said, it had a positive result (as far as the case is concerned), so viewers still sympathize/empathize w/ him.

I thought about Tuco as the target, since Nacho said he can't do the job himself. Def a possibility, but it could easily be something else.

I think she's starting to lose it. We know there were no shots, when she said "I was here, you weren't," we know Mike in fact was there all night and saw that the "gunfire" was actually papers hitting the ground. I think her feelings about what Mike revealed re: himself and her husband are too much for her.

As for Chuck, I think part of his actions are motivated out of legitimate concern for the firm, but he is also personally invested in seeing Jimmy fail. He has to justify to himself his own bad behavior towards Jimmy in keeping him out of the firm. And his pride would take a hit if someone w/ Jimmy's background and the way he obtained his degree would become a successful lawyer.

Even if his office wasn't boring, I don't think Jimmy is the type to play by the rules. He tried that, but as he said, never again will he let doing the right thing get in the way of something he wants. I took his expression on the couch as one of sadness/ resignation that he and Kim aren't gonna make it. He felt bad about lying to her and realized that their time together is limited.

While they share this same motivation, for Walt it was his catalyst to break bad, while for Mike, it was merely the catalyst to break further bad. By this point, Mike had long ago broke bad. He was a dirty cop and a murderer already. Furthermore, when Walt breaks bad, he gets a taste of power that he loves and continues down his path out of enjoyment of that, whereas Mike does not enjoy being a bad guy; he is motivated to just "do the job I was hired for." Mike is the good guy criminal, whereas Walt was the bad guy criminal.

Yes- Jimmy has become addicted to forbidden fruit, it is like a drug for him. But I think he already feels rejected by Chuck and is no longer motivated by his approval, but he surely does want to prove that he's just as smart and can equal if not outdo his brother in results. That slippin' Jimmy's ways can be just as effective. He is not a firm player and I think he wants to show up that whole type of attitude/culture, as a way of getting back at Chuck.

I agree that Jimmy feared either the ad wouldn't be accepted or- as already stated, it would be discussed/nitpicked/altered so much that 1- it would take forever to get it out there or 2- it would lose most of it's efficacy due to being watered down.

I see it as being perfectly in keeping w/ Jimmy's character. Not only does he love making end runs, he's also possessed of a fair degree of self-sabotage. He doesn't want to be at that firm. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he will continue to take actions that will eventually lead to his expulsion.

Highly successful, arrogant people are known to have tunnel-vision in certain cases. Admitting that their ad-by-committee was inferior to a single upstarts' attempt might be difficult. I doubt if not being worth the money would be an objection, but the feeling that such an ad might be beneath them certainly could. I also think that Saul's very effective plea on an emotional level might rub the wrong way and be considered lower crust. Their 1st video shows how they would likely want it- "the facts, ma'am, just the facts."

I like your analogy of the teen and car. Main knows Jimmy might be a loose cannon, while also knowing he is crucial to the case. Sure, I'll make you in charge of outreach, but how dare you take any action w/o my approval!

It's possible that Tuco could be the target, but Mike doesn't take the job or even lets Tuco know of the plan. But I agree that it wouldn't happen that Tuco is the target and Mike agrees to the job, b/c then there would be no Tuco. As you say, Mike is incredibly smart and proficient at what he does.

I took that scene as a reflection of how Jimmy's down-to-earth personality will never fit in w/ the cold/calculating world he is entering.

Yes, I don't see a whole lot more of those movie nights in their future.

I don't know that the plot w/ Mike's DIL will have a lot more to it; I think it serves mainly as the catalyst for Mike breaking his own boundaries as to what he will/won't do in his criminal activities. We will see them getting a new place and I imagine we'll see the DIL's breakdown continue until at some point she is gone. IIRC, she was not there in the BB universe.

One thing that bugs me, given this team's attention to detail and how glaring an error it is: Kaley's age. I certainly understand it can't be the same actor, but she's close to the same age here as she was in BB, when she should be 6 yrs younger. I just can't fathom how this team missed that.

I really appreciate your insights into the legal profession to help clarify points here. I had the feeling that Jimmy's approach might be "below" the attitudes of such an upscale firm. Actually I was surprised they would deign to run a commercial at all, but not surprised if they did lower themselves to do so, it would be so dry and factual.

I appreciate the shout-out, but I'm no lawyer.

 

Things are really starting to heat up. The most exciting part to me was Mike in the vet's office and subsequent meeting in the darkness. I was thinking- here we go, the beginning of Mike's connection w/ Gus' world. I thought it might be Nacho, but I also thought it might be Victor that emerged from those shadows. Even w/ it being Nacho, one way or another this plot-line will lead inevitably into Gus' world. I just hope they take their time getting to Gus, w/ lots of side stories involving Mike and cartel-related figures. As much as I love Jimmy/Saul's character, I still find Mike's character more engrossing.

 

We already know that Tuco survives into the BB world and Nacho doesn't (perhaps). So it COULD be Tuco that Nacho wants to eliminate. Maybe it just goes bad for him.

 

Here's hoping Gus becomes a central character!

 

Darn, must have been a conflict and BCS did not record last night. Have to wait til Wednesday to watch and read this thread. Sigh.

 

Excellent (as always) episode, and the only bad thing about this show is that it reminds me how sub-par most other shows are.

Concerning Mike's daughter in law, while it may just be that's she's going a little nuts, I was reading a possible selfish subtext to her "concerns." I'm wondering if she's seeing that Mike is willing to do things for her, and just really doesn't like the house and neighborhood she's living in, and is *using* Mike to move to a nicer home/area. Perhaps she knows Mike harbors a lot of guilt, and she's using that to her advantage.

I'm still curious why she needs so much supplemental income from Mike. She has one child to take care of, and nurses usually make at least decent if not good money (with great benefits), she's saving on babysitter costs using Mike, and I can't imagine rent in that area is *that* expensive (I'm in California, so I know *most* places seem cheaper by comparison). She also had a suitcase full of money that Mike told her to use from her husband's dealings.

While they're surely using the whole situation to move Mike towards the life he ends up in, I still read an interesting possible selfish and manipulative subtext to the daughter in law character.

 

My favorite line last night was Jimmy selling himself with the retired folks on the bus. "My nana and bobo."

 

Didn't Nacho just say he needed someone "taken care of"? Tuco doesn't have to be killed to be taken care of - and he's gotta meet Skinny Pete somewhere....

 

That's certainly possible, but if so, she's quite the actress; she certainly looked pretty unhinged. And I don't recall the exact amount of money her husband left, but I'm thinking $5-10K. Not a terribly high amount. And is Mike a constant babysitter? I had the impression that was an occasional thing.

 

Excellent point!

 

Although eagle-eyed Breaking Bad viewers have spotted that in the first BB episode where we see Saul he says this:

 

nice catch!

 

That has bugged me, too. It's not like we even look at Kaley's face that much. There are thousands of little girls who look identical to the actress. But, since she's such a minor character, don't even look at her. There's no need really. She's just kind of floats around on the screen like a smudge.

Yeah, my bad, the other lawyer is Wavetheflag. Sorry, @wavethatflag, JimW didn't even graduate from the University of American Samoa. But he's still cool. University of American Samoa »

By the way, there is no Birdie's Homestyle Buffet in Amarillo, Texas.

 

I love the song that played in the first moments of the show, when Jimmy is standing against the building in Amarillo, with head down and his big cowboy hat all we can see of his head. It seemed like the perfect song for that moment. Does anyone know that song and who was singing it on that recording?

 

"Walt(z) Across Texas" - Ernest Tubb

 

I hadn't thought about that- good call. But I can't make it out, when he says "??? didn't send you?" Anybody catch this? I'd rather not have to play my BR just to get this.

 

Here is another thing that the show really gets right about law firms. Even in a unified law firm, where everyone is of the same social status, and practices in the same area of law, there are business generating attorneys who are really good at signing up new business, and are hard working and aggressive about going out and getting it. Then there are backroom technicians, who work on that business that the business generator has brought in.

Often those backroom technicians raise very picky, usually groundless objections to taking the business. Wringing their hands, they moan about possible "conflicts of interest" that are either imaginary or extremely tenuous. These objections are usually wrapped in pious statements about "doing the right thing under the Court rules" and other phony platitudes. What is odd is that if the business generators did not land this business, the backroom technicians would have nothing to work on, and would be out of a job. The backroom technicians could never bring in a client on their own, if their life depended on it.

As the backroom technician pontificates about the hyper-technical reasons why the firm should turn down the business, the business generating attorney's head is about to explode. The business generating attorney has been out busting his or her butt to bring in the business, wining and dining, selling, worrying, following up. The business generating attorney knows that this backroom technician, so lacking in social skills and elementary sales skills, could never bring in a single client in ten years. But the business generating attorney has to sit and listen to the nonsense. I have been in a room in which shouting matches have broken out between the two groups of attorneys.

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks for another insightful look into law practices. Almost sounds as if the technicians are jealous/envious. Why bite the hand that feeds you?

Just curious- which of these categories would you be in/have been in?

 

The internet says it's "Lalo."

Obviously it's just a throwaway line of dialogue written long before a spin-off was in their minds but they like the challenge of writing their way back into something like that.

 

I began as a technician and became a business generator as I grew more experienced. I never said a word though when I was a young technician. I was too afraid of being fired, which happens a lot in law firms.