Margaux and I team up to talk last night’s extra large Better Call Saul.
Trevor: I’ve come to realize that Vince Gilligan is obsessed with plans, and the people who have them. Breaking Bad started out as a pretty good plan, and look how that turned out. There’s something hubristic about trying to impose order on something as naturally chaotic and random as life. “Wiedersehen” was full of plans going awry, or threatening to. I mean, Nacho planned to kill Hector, and now he’s crazier and more dangerous than ever. So it makes sense that the episode started with a plan and ended with another. We’re entering endgame in this penultimate episode – which I’m sure is part of the reason it was so long – and I have a feeling everything is going to blow up in a lot of faces. How did “Wiedersehen” work for you?
Margaux: I never thought Better Call Saul would be a show where you tell there was a marked improvement in storytelling, both written and visual, just by the director and writer of the week; it was never something I thought Breaking Bad suffered from, although Rian Johnson’s episodes were always unique to his style. But I thought “Wiedersehen” had the distinct touch of one of my favorite TV writers, Gennifer Hutchison, coupled with VG, it was old like old times!
I was surprised by how much this penultimate episode tied so closely to the first few episodes of the season in a very emotional and pleasantly surprising way. I wish we got here a little bit sooner. I am, admittedly, still reeling over Kim’s monologue to Jimmy about how she carries ALL the emotional weight in their relationship and all Jimmy does lately is resent her for not wanting to sign a lease on an office with him. It was, as ever, very difficult to watch Jimmy basically (attempt) to have the same fight he had for decades with Chuck with his girlfriend he should feel very lucky puts up with his shit.
This is an extremely long way of me saying, this episode motherfucking WORKED for me. Every storyline was a banger.
Trevor: I’ll agree with you there (readers, it’s gonna be another one of those reviews where we just gush about the episode the whole time). When this show is on, there’s nothing like it on TV. And it was on last night. I think the scene that announced just how good this was going to be was Lalo’s visit to Hector. I realized that even without the bell, you could still hear the “ding” every time Hector poked his armrest, so iconic is that sound. And then to actually see the bell – it did what great prequels are supposed to do, show you how then becomes now, and I can honestly say I got goosebumps. It was like watching a supervillain’s origin story.
Margaux: It was!! I thought, at first, “oh no, we’re gonna get some Uncle Ben bullshit backstory.” But the longer Lalo (so many terrific monologues last night, well acted and beautifully written) went on about how this bell slash souvenir from a previous act of cruelty on the part of Hector came to be, the less I listened to him and got sucked into watching Hector’s reaction to Lalo re-telling this story. You see him reliving the entire thing all over his face, his breath, it was mesmerizing. For a moment, I almost forgot at the end we’d end up with the servants bell we come to know so well in Breaking Bad. But I think even better than that was Nacho’s reactions to literally everything happening around him in this episode, he constantly seems to communicate to the audience, “Can you fucking believe this shit? These fuckers are WILD and I need to get away.”
Trevor: I took a few notes about what a great physical actor Michael Mando is. It’s especially evident when he and Lalo are at Pollos Hermanos; Lalo lounges in the booth, while everything about Nacho’s face, eyes, and body language shows his discomfort, frustration, and uncertainty. And while we’re on the subject of Lalo, there’s something about him speaking English that’s very off-putting, I think because his American accent is so flat and affectless. It really does little to hide his intentions.
Margaux: Lalo is also hot, so I don’t tend to listen to everything he says.
Trevor: And I think he knows it. Lalo is smart enough to know that Nacho isn’t stupid. How much, if anything, he knows about what Nacho did, or Nacho’s connection to Gus, is the big X factor of his character. I just realized that Nacho could die next week, and now I want to skip the episode in case that happens.
Margaux: Lalo can smell that something isn’t right, that’s why he’s picking at the surface, waiting for someone to break. He doesn’t give a shit who it is, but he’s taking the “kill ‘em with kindness” route. Unlike Hector, who, by Lalo’s admission just wants to “kill everyone.” Classic Hector! I thought the touch of Lalo littering in the Pollos parking lot was an inspired touch because you can just picture Gus frowning and plotting while sweeping up later that day.
Trevor: And it was another way to literalize the turf war. Right now the Fring/Salamanca factions are in a cold war, which will become hot real soon. But littering is just Lalo’s way of telling Gus: I see you, I got a read on you, I know exactly how to get under your skin. It’s the exact reason he greeted Nacho by cooking food in Nacho’s kitchen and then offering it to him. He can still make these power plays while maintaining his veneer of helpfulness and politeness, which makes him A, dangerous; and B, wholly unique among the Salamanca clan.
Margaux: He’s the Gus Fring of the Salamanca crew.
But to address your previous point about Nacho possibly dying next week (I don’t think he will, he’ll probably make it to next season), I know who is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DEAD in the finale: that sneaky German fuck, Werner. Look, am I mad my prediction of Kai dying isn’t coming true? Yes. I’m mostly mad at myself for taking the obvious bait when all along, much like Mike, I should’ve known Werner was gonna crack. He was the definition of, “well, that escalated quickly.” But I think the stern warning woke Werner up, made him finally realize what kind of people he was really involved with. Werner having a very realistic-seeming anxiety/panic attack over the explosive not detonating was nerve racking; the claustrophobic setting, the actual danger of it just…going off (Kai, at his core, is probably just a fuckin’ moron), and of course, Werner’s real fear: will this mess up be the one that gets me killed by these people. But I have to think that Mike has all their passports, so what is Werner’s plan? He got as far as messing up the cameras with his little tool, but what next? Does he think he can actually get away with this scott free? Bro. Come on.
Trevor: I love the bait and switch that BCS pulled with Kai and Werner. I didn’t expect Werner to be the one to crack, either! Yet another plan destined to not work out. It’s all part of this show’s dark comedy DNA; sometimes reminiscent of the Coen Brothers, especially the more cynical work like Burn After Reading (although this show isn’t quite as black-hearted). And Werner’s actions also make you feel bad for Mike. He’s trapped in this hole too (figuratively speaking), and Werner was the one with whom he made a connection.
Margaux: Or the more simplistic reading, Mike actually liked this dude, and now he has to murder him because it’s…well, it’s protocol. Honestly, the more Werner talked about his wife, the more dead he was in my eyes. You ain’t never seeing old Margs again, you dumb dumb! When Mike gives you advice, you goddamn take it!
Should we get to Jimmy’s insincerity first or the most painful grift just so some rich bank guy can get 13% more office space?
Trevor: I felt legitimately bad for Jimmy. Not just “something bad is happening to a TV character I like” bad. Bob Odenkirk’s performance in the committee meeting was incredible; it’s always thrilling to watch Jimmy sell himself, like watching a tightrope walker. And Odenkirk knows this character on such a cellular level that you can see the minute switches between sincerity and bullshit, the tiny flash of panic as he’s asked what the law means to him. “Chuck” was the unspoken word that dominated the conversation, and Gilligan and Hutchinson wrung a surprising amount of tension out of watching Jimmy go on and on, never mentioning his brother.
Margaux: I’m of two minds on how the hearing went. At one point in my notes, obviously before it’s revealed that he is ultimately declined the opportunity to become a lawyer again, I wrote, “of course Jimmy is gonna charm his way into his job” (I wrote this sometime after he exclaims, “classic Scalia!” cause that was hella funny). Yet it was oddly satisfying to see Jimmy not win. Blame “the climate” (as Always Sunny brilliantly coined last week), but it was nice to see an entitled white guy not get what he wants. And in order to get what he wants, he once again needs Kim smarts and her diligence and her ability to say “fuck you” to perceived failures. Sure, that can’t feel great, but why recreate every fight you’ve ever had with Chuck with Kim? They aren’t the same people, one actually cares about you, and she’s the alive one for those keeping score at home.
Jimmy’s sad sack, Eeyore routine when he gets home after HE blows up on KIM – who literally leaves work so he scream at her (in the end), enraged me. Like, what kind of childish, bratty ass behavior is this? Again, Kim is left to clean up another Jimmy mess and reassure him that everything is gonna be okay. Does he even want to be a lawyer? I’m for real asking because even though I do agree that trotting out dead people to gin up sympathy is fucking irksome as hell, sometimes you gotta tell people what they wanna hear. And they clearly wanted to hear him acknowledge his fairly prominent lawyer brother, they gave him two chances! What does the law mean to you and who are your law heros. She threw that shit right over the plate, all he had to do was say his brother, get a little choked up and ta-daaaa, you’re a fuckin’ lawyer again, jerk.
Trevor: I appreciated that the show didn’t try to make Jimmy sympathetic, or even likeable, during his argument with Kim, or afterward. As for your question, I don’t know if Jimmy wants to be a lawyer. I think Jimmy identifies “Jimmy” as a lawyer, but he’s had a taste of another life, that of Saul Goodman, who doesn’t need to define himself so rigidly. Saul Goodman can be whatever he wants to be, a lawyer plus anything. As Jesse Pinkman said, “You don’t need a criminal lawyer, you need a criminal lawyer.”
Margaux: Everyone is at an impasse. But one thing is for sure, there is still a large, Chuck sized shadow that continues to loom largely in the background.
Trevor: Waiting until the second-to-last episode to address it, to even say his name (barring that one flashback), is such smart, confident storytelling.
Episodes like this are exactly why I recommend Better Call Saul to people. It works on a micro scale, but when you see it on a macro scale, when everything comes together at the end of a season, it just kind of leaves you in awe. It’s like in every episode we get to watch a painter pick their colors, and then by the ninth or tenth episode we get to see the painting. Would you like to slap a star count on “Wiedersehen”?
Margaux: I’ve been hesitant to go to extremes with the star count on Better Call Saul and episodes like “Wiedersehen” remind you that even if week-to-week you’re left dissatisfied, they always stick the landing in ways you cannot predict. As I said at the top of the review, this episode is a fuckin’ (emotional) banger.
5/5
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