Margaux and I talk colors on this week’s Better Call Saul.
Trevor: How great was that opening shot? The slow pan down of all the “Wanted” posters, landing right on Jimmy’s face. Of course, that ensured that I spent the entire next scene scanning the faces on the posters to see if I could spot any Breaking Bad Easter eggs.
Margaux: I never even attempted to go there, there are people on the internet far more skilled than I for that sort of thing. Regardless, I’m a little sad to see the end of the Kettleman storyline. Betsy’s nuttiness was starting to grow on me and I wasn’t expecting to get as sentimental as I did at their resolution.
Trevor: Showrunner Peter Gould gave an interview recently where he talked about Better Call Saul’s color scheme. What it boils down to is, brighter primary colors, especially red, indicate crime or wrongdoing (notice the color of the shirt Tuco was wearing, or the one car door on Saul’s car). Darker primaries, mainly blue, indicate that someone is on the right side of the law (Kim Wexler, for instance, is almost always in blue). Jimmy wore a lot of blue throughout “Bingo,” save for the scene where he’s dressed like Matlock playing bingo with the old folks. I will never get tired of his Matlock suit.
Margaux: That explains a lot of the color scheme when Mike steals back the embezzled Kettleman money.
Trevor: Breaking Bad used color better than almost any show on TV. I’m glad to see BCS continue that tradition.
But let’s back up and talk about your favorite characters, the Kettelmans: these people are insane, stubborn, and darkly hilarious. This show is getting more Coen-esque every week. I’m sure you noticed how quickly Betsy let go of Craig’s hand when Kim said he was looking at thirty years.
Margaux: Oh yeah, even as they left HHM’s office after they’d fired Kim, she whispers – loudly – to Craig, “LOOK FORWARD! Always look forward in life!” Up to the very end, she would not budge an inch on her diluted outlook of their family being 100% innocent. It provided a lot of great humor when they “retained” Jimmy’s services and Betsy continued to insist there was no money. Both times they’ve met up in that diner, I’ve gotten flashes of Fargo. In a good way.
Trevor: Betsy was going full Shaggy in “Bingo” – “It wasn’t me.” I was getting a Fargo vibe myself, just from little touches like the guy shoving past Jimmy while exiting the bathroom. It’s a small moment, but it builds the world.
Speaking of small moments – way to go, Chuck, two minutes outside! I can’t tell you how happy I was for him in that scene.
Margaux: My happiness for Chuck was a little more short-lived. It actually raised other questions like, was he even sick to begin with or, will all his attempts at building up immunity end up killing him? Only time will tell but, he didn’t immediately lunge for his space blanket so, good? Plus, Chuck seems pretty determined to get back to work and I wonder if Jimmy will try to woo Chuck into his new office space.
Trevor: Well, Chuck is an inherently tragic character, and he doesn’t show up on Breaking Bad, so I don’t know if he has a happy ending in store, unfortunately.
Jimmy’s new office was ridiculous. That thing could fit ten lawyers! I knew he’d get shot down by Kim. I really like the ambiguity of their relationship. They’re obviously good friends, but I feel like there’s something more there (Jimmy painting her toenails a few episodes ago was strangely intimate. Oh, and the polish was blue, naturally).
Margaux: I think even Jimmy knew Kim would shoot him down but, like you pointed out, based upon their toenail painting party, you could see why he’d have to try. But GEEZZZ dat office doe – does he really have enough clients to fill up the place? Seeing that it’s only gonna be Jimmy in that office for a while, until he gets a secretary, it seems a bit…too much for just him. I know working out of the back of a darkened nail shop for years makes you want to spread your wings and, elderly bingo seems to going well but, can Jimmy really afford this place? He gave back his Kettleman bribe so, I can only assume yes.
Trevor: I’m surprised he didn’t go a pettier route and look at offices across the street from HHM. I don’t understand why he needed a huge office, though; his elderly clients aren’t going to want to go all the way downtown. It’s funny to see how much larger blue-shirt Jimmy’s ambition is – orange-shirt Saul ends up operating out of a strip mall.
The scene where Mike returned Jimmy’s money, only to go back in and take it, was masterful. The score coupled with Larysa Kondracki’s direction made it play like a mini-heist movie. And the shot of Mike standing there next to, like, all the apple cores was pretty funny. Dude at like five or six apples. I haven’t had that many apples all year.
Margaux: For a second, I thought you were going to point out the opening scene in the police station when one of the Philly cops get in Jimmy’s face, over Mike lifting his notebook, and calls him an “ambulance chaser.” A part of me was like, “nah dawg, he’s not Saul yet,” and that’s when I realized I’m an idiot and that was subtext. Anyway, I thought your point of orange shirt Saul of the strip mall being brought up to blue shirted Jimmy by the angsty cop was an interesting moment where you can see the end that we haven’t gotten to yet.
Trevor: It’s amazing that Better Call Saul can get us so invested in a character’s story when we already know the end. But to be fair, Vince Gilligan has said that BCS will return to Omaha at some point, maybe next season, so Saul’s story isn’t completely over in the present day.
Margaux: Huh. That’s a terrifying thought, whatever is left to tell in Omaha will be bleak.
But, back to “Bingo,” I liked Mike’s heist scene – even though it felt a little long – because the pay off of it, at least for me, came when Jimmy comes over to the Kettlemans’ the next morning. Obviously, they have no idea the money is gone so the physical comedy of actually seeing the same route Mike calmly took less than 12 hours ago, frantically replicated by Betsy, cemented for me how inept they are at being criminals. Mike broke into their house and stole their money faster than it took Betsy, inside her house, to get up the stairs.
Trevor: That’s a good point, I hadn’t noticed. Watching the Kettlemans scramble around their M.C. Escher-style house was pretty damn funny. That whole last scene was a good mic drop for Jimmy. How exhausted do you think Bob Odenkirk is at the end of every day? He spends every scene he’s in talking. It’s dizzying in a good way.
Margaux: I can’t imagine beating up a concrete wall would leave you feeling like you’ve just had a solid 8 hours of sleep. I guess Jimmy had some mixed feelings over “doing the right thing” with the Kettlemans and their money, I’m willing to wager when they brought up their kids, but overall – everything’s coming up McGill! So, what’s next?
Trevor: It’s tough to see what’s going to happen from here – the business with Kettelemans and with the Philadelphia cops seems more or less wrapped up. I hope we see some more of Nacho soon. They keep teasing us by listing Michael Mando in the credits.
Margaux: You would think we haven’t seen the last of Nacho, his associate still thinks Jimmy ratted him out to the Kettlemans to begin with. And now that he’s had some time to reflect on it, I highly doubt its softened his opinion on that.
Trevor: And it started out so well! You wanna talk stars, or do you have anything more to add?
Margaux: WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?
JKZ, we can talk stars – duhs, isn’t that the whole point? It was a lot of tying up loose ends established in the pilot and of course it was well written, acted, directed, etc, but, it was a slower pace and I kept waiting for something to happen and that thing turned out to be the end of the Kettlemans. It was a solid four stars for me.
Trevor: That’s what I was thinking. I’d be surprised if this show ever dips below four stars.
Margaux: Yeah, we’re pretty predictable.
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