Better Call Saul makes a damn fine return, and Margaux and I return to talk about it.
Trevor: You have to admire Better Call Saul for having the confidence to start with what is, for this show, a pretty slow episode. Not that “slow” is always a bad thing. When done right, like in “Switch,” it’s a great thing. So much of BCS is centered on interiority, and since Jimmy doesn’t give long internal monologues like Dexter Morgan, it’s up to the show to visualize his descent into craven amorality. Not an easy task to pull off.
Margaux: I think the thing Better Call Saul does best is never over promising anything and in turn, never under delivering; “Switch” feels very much like the logical progression of the story, it doesn’t try to do anything fancy other than to continue fill out the characters you really care for and simply tells the fuckin’ story. I was so happy BCS elaborated on (and seems to be carrying over the Breaking Bad motif of telling a smaller story through flashforward/flashback) Saul as the downtrodden Cinnabon manager.
Trevor: Cinnabon is still enjoying the weirdest product placement ever. I loved the black and white opening, and I too am glad that we apparently haven’t seen the last of Saul’s present-day life. It makes it seem like there’s more to the story, and justifies the show’s existence (prequels are tricky propositions). Also, some great facial acting from Bob Odenkirk: look at the anxiety and near-palpable terror on his face as he contemplates opening the emergency exit. The word POLICE looms large, and we get the sense that his life in Nebraska is far from comfortable (remember at the beginning of last season, too, when he furtively glanced around the restaurant, wary of anyone even slightly suspicious-looking) .
Margaux: Unless you are trying to stay off the grid, I cannot imagine why you’d just wait it out in the dumpster area of a mall. You know that cement hole doesn’t get any cell reception. And Saul’s present day life compared to the life of Jimmy, lounging in a pool and running a game on some stock schmuck is really as stark a contrast as you can get.
Trevor: This was probably the best way to start the season: get the mid-season revelation out of the way as quickly as possible. Most shows would have had him sign with Davis & Main, then by episode four or five he’d be enjoying his “midlife clarity.” But right away we started to see Jimmy shed his persona as a lawyer – quite literally, as he tore the sign off of his door, after defiantly drinking cucumber water (a moment Odenkirk sold the hell out of). The biggest factor seems to be, as he tells Mike, he could have walked away with 800 grand! He’s even more explicit with Kim: “I’ve done the right thing, and where has it gotten me?”
Margaux: Well, it certainly hasn’t earned him a bright yellow Hummer H2 with the license plate PLAYUH.
Trevor: Yes, let’s talk about Daniel Wormald, the only part of “Switch” I wasn’t completely sold on. He seems too obvious, this goony version of Walter White who buys the kind of Hummer you’d see in a bad guy’s garage in a Transporter movie, and has the same disrespect for the game that led to Walt’s downfall. He wants people to play fair, and doesn’t understand when they won’t. But he seems like too much of a doofus for Mike to even connect himself to, so I wasn’t in love with the subplot, even though I do appreciate BCS expanding both its world and its ensemble. And anything that gets Michael Mando on my screen can’t be that bad – Nacho is seriously menacing.
Margaux: But what I like most about Nacho is that he’s also charming and disarming enough to lead Wormald to believe that he’s safe(ish) enough, so safe that he lets Nacho sit in his car while he goes around back to count his money. I see where you’re coming from, but I think Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould are too smart to have Wormald be an exact telegraph of White. What really sold me on the subplot was Wormald’s break in and his baseball cards being stolen, I mean, talk about obsessive. I love that he has a excel spreadsheet at the ready for the cops, and what hooked me was the police officers discovery of…something. Clearly something they’ll be able to hold against him, so while Wormald digs a deeper hole for himself, Mike – and I assume Jimmy – will have to pull him out of it at some point. I just want Nacho, Mike, and Jimmy to have a storyline together. Although I did enjoy Kim and Jimmy FINALLY getting together, it was charming and real world romantic – was kept in check by limiting any cornball text by going all subtext and subtle glances.
Trevor: Okay, I’ll concede your point about Wormald. I have to remember that Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan are much smarter than I am, and unlike Jimmy, are playing a long con. I loved watching him and Kim – alias Viktor and Giselle St. Clair – con stock-bro Ken out of a meal and what must have been about a thousand dollars worth of tequila. (Props to Kyle Bornheimer for making Ken such a believable tool.)
And as far as Jimmy and Kim go, as much as I enjoyed the con, I liked the morning after even more. When he stuck her finger in his mouth to use as a toothbrush, it was charming and realistic, and it helps that Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn have such easy chemistry.
Margaux: Kim makes Jimmy want to be a better person, hence his ultimate acceptance of the job at Davis & Main (at least Sitwell, Ed Begs Jr, is his boss! Can’t be all bad), but Jimmy is still gonna Jimmy – as evidenced by his constant need to fuck with well enough. It was a small, somewhat childish moment, Jimmy is left alone in his very swanky new office, he walks over to a light switch with a label under it that reads: DO NOT TURN OFF. And of course the first thing he does is switch the light off, luckily nothing comes of that moment, but I think it serves to illustrate that even if you’re trying to be a better person (whatever that may mean you individually) you’re still going to be you – wherever you go, there you are. I suspect that at some point Jimmy will act in a way that’ll drive Kim away and that that will seal the fate and transition of Jimmy into Saul. But we didn’t get the physical presence of Chuck in “Switch”, and his complicated relationship with his brother might actually hold more weight on the choices that Jimmy makes than Kim (or any romantic relationship for that matter).
Trevor: Withholding Chuck was a smart move on the show’s part. Michael McKean’s performance is so good that his absence is definitely noted. I liked that Jimmy immediately started fiddling with the light switch, but I liked even more that long shot that closed out the episode. His big office looks pretty lonely, does it not? Better Call Saul excels at subtle reminders like that – reminders that Saul/Jimmy/Mr. Cumpston/Viktor St. Clair is a deeply tragic figure.
Margaux: Like most humans, Jimmy is many contradicting things wrapped in one. I so enjoy watching Bob Odenkirk in this role, he makes Jimmy/Saul/Viktor such a realized character he’s hardly a character at all. Who doesn’t know a someone like Jimmy?
Trevor: Very well put. I’m glad this show is back. It just seems so effortlessly great. You want to talk stars?
Margaux: Effortlessly great is such an apt description of Better Call Saul. “Switch” was solid welcome back episode, but I’m more excited for what’s to come than what was put on the screen, so I’d give “Switch” four stars.
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