Margaux and I are just glad this week’s excellent Better Call Saul had nothing to do with a certain Adam Sandler movie.
Trevor: I was kind of hoping that Better Call Saul would take a hard left with “Cobbler” – I mean, if your show reminds me of The Cobbler, I want magical realism and weirdly regressive racial stereotypes! But alas, BCS was its usual tragic, funny self. (A lot of “Cobbler” cracked me up.)
Margaux: My first note is, “really hope this episode bears no resemblance to Sandler’s The Cobbler, or that this has anything to do with shoes.” Alas, Better Call Saul’s “Cobbler” shared its name with the pie variety and not the shoe repair kind. I probably didn’t laugh as hard as you did, the check in with Chuck really bummed me out, but I was touched by the development of Kim and Jimmy’s relationship. Man, it’s gonna SUCK when they break up because you know this can’t last forever.
Trevor: Yeah, it really is, especially because they have such sweet, natural chemistry. I like Rhea Seehorn’s straightforward delivery, more so when it’s done flirtatiously, like when she gives Jimmy the World’s 2nd Best Lawyer mug (which tellingly doesn’t fit in the cup holder of his new snazzy car).
Margaux: Even their small, shared moments around the conference room table weren’t forced or contrived, it felt natural and moved their romance along without having to spend too much time on. I think there’s something to be examined about the cars of Better Call Saul, between Jimmy’s upgrade and Daniel giving up the PLAYUH mobile.
Trevor: Oh yeah, cars were always a major motif of Breaking Bad, so it’s natural that it would transfer to Better Call Saul. I actually enjoyed the Daniel Wormald plot in “Cobbler,” because I always like seeing Mike, well, be Mike. He’s consistently underestimated, by Daniel and later by Walt, because they consider him a paid employee and assume they have authority over him. I think that’s why he and Gus got along so well, but that’s neither here nor there.
Margaux: I think the thing about Mike is that he’s a little too good at his job, when your employers don’t see you sweat and you get shit done seamlessly (like Mike always does), people will think they can do what you do because you make it look easy. You’re expendable to begin with, you add on top that people can’t ‘see’ your work, yeah – you’re gonna get pompous jackasses like Wormald and Walt undercutting you. I’m really glad you name checked Gus because we got an in episode name check during Mike’s storyline, TUCO! Gilligan and Gould have hinted at a Breaking Bad character coming back, you think Tuco will be a player in the Better Call Saul world this season?
Trevor: I certainly hope so! I liked Mike and Nacho’s confrontation. First of all, giving Nacho a day job is a great touch, and really rounds him out as a character. And for all of Nacho’s menace, he’s still not top dog. He tensed up pretty quick when Mike told him “the stick is named Tuco Salamanca.” Who can blame him? Tuco is fucking crazy. It’d be nice to see him back on BCS; his wild energy always adds a shot of life to the show.
Margaux: Giving Nacho a 9-5 job at his family-run business was a delightful contrast I didn’t even know I wanted, it was a great humanizing touch to have Nacho play translator for his Dad while he tries to sell, but not upsell, Mike on some new upholstery. Especially a few scenes later, we watch Nacho trade Wormald back his meticulously collected baseball cards for Wormald’s hideous Hummer school bus, the look on Wormald’s face when he realizes the car is going to car chop shop heaven was priceless. Nacho isn’t even menacing about it, I mean, at least not till the very end when he cuts all ties to Wormald and let’s him know that contacting him in the future will result in way worse than stolen baseball cards.
Trevor: “Our business is now concluded.” Michael Mando packs a lot of menace into lines like that. A big part of Better Call Saul that we seldom mention is just how strong this ensemble is, made up of mostly unknowns. Casting directors doing their job right.
Margaux: Casting better known comedians in dramatic roles, obviously Odenkirk and McKean, is their strongest attribute. Watching Ed Begley Jr play guitar would feel like a silly non-moment almost anywhere else, but Gennifer Hutchison is such a great writer there wasn’t a false note in this entire episode.
Trevor: It was actually a strangely lovely moment, contrasted nicely with Chuck’s aborted attempts at playing piano in “Cobbler”’s haunting opening. (And how gorgeously shot are the scenes in Chuck’s kitchen?) Hutchison is a Breaking Bad vet, and it’s smart to keep some of those on the payroll; they really “get’ this world, and it shows in strong episodes like “Cobbler.”
Margaux: What did you think of season two’s version of a Chicago Sunroof, the Squat Cobbler? You know that Wormald 10000000% cried when they made their reverse American Pie video.
Trevor: That’s the humor I was talking about. I was cracking up in that scene, because you just know how much fun Jimmy was having, fucking with Wormald. And adding that he does “crybaby squats” was just icing. Great sight gag too, in the way the detectives kept looking over their shoulders at Wormald in disbelief. And Jimmy bought extra pies in case of extra takes!
But Hutchison doesn’t let him off the hook. It’s sweet to see Jimmy and Kim eating pie, and sweeter still that he didn’t lie to her about helping Wormald, but you can see that there was a shift in their relationship. Jimmy fabricated evidence, which to Kim is leagues different than scamming some stock broker douche out of fancy tequila.
Margaux: I think, from Jimmy’s perspective, he doesn’t think he didn’t anything wrong, let alone did he (at least until it’s brought up to him) think he was fabricating evidence. I really loved the ending of “Cobbler” because it posed the question from “Switch” a little more forcibly, and I think will be the crux of season two, “what’s the point” of Jimmy doing stupid ass shit? To Kim’s eyes, Jimmy has it all going on right now, if this cobbler video was just a nothing pro-bono thing, why risk your job at D&M over it? The ink is barely dry on his lease on that Mercedes.
Trevor: I love moments like that. They make Kim a kind of audience surrogate. We got to know Jimmy as Saul for four seasons of Breaking Bad, so you’d think a prequel series would be little more than fan service, but nope, Better Call Saul is hell-bent on showing us that Jimmy McGill is a talented lawyer who lucked into a huge case that landed him a nice job at a big firm (he’s on track to be partner!), and he threw that away to become Saul Goodman. Why? This is a deceptively thoughtful show; I’m glad Gilligan & Gould didn’t make it the half-hour comedy they originally envisioned it as.
Margaux: Chuck’s face when he hears the words “partner track” looked like someone just used a cellphone in front of him, he was aghast – and I never use that word. But yeah, Kim is the audience viewpoint and it’s all fun and games when you get some stock tool to throw down $150 per tequila shot, but Kim clearly delineates what the differences mean to her and although she appreciates and understands Jimmy, she would rather not hear about it because she knows it’s stupid to ask him to not be himself. I just wonder how that will impact their relationship over time.
Trevor: Lot of layers going on. This was a damn good episode of Better Call Saul, opening up a lot of doors that I’m excited to watch the show walk through. You wanna talk star count?
Margaux: YUP! “Cobbler” being only the second episode of the season, we’re still in ‘laying groundwork’ mode, but Better Call Saul makes the painstaking work of setting up conflict, fleshing out relationships, and building up characters more enjoyable than it should be. And how does this show look better every time I tune in to watch? I“Cobbler” is another solid 4 star episode, I think in an episode or two, we’ll be in five star territory.
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