Official - Better Call Saul - Discussion Thread

Looks to be playing out differently with what happened in the last episode.

There has to be something about her for the show to have her in it. You don’t put a legendary actress like Carol Burnett into a series like this just to be a “Sweet Old Lady”.

Marion saw them go into the garage, that’s the last we saw of her so far. We definitely will find out her story real soon.

Real curious to see what happens after Jimmy goes into that house. And with the small preview they showed, I don’t think the cops were arriving for the burglary. Last week showed Jimmy driving down that road looking like he was at a “crossroads” in his life. Turned out to be a completely different scenario.

And with that, Jimmy on the phone with Franseca was interesting. It looks like the Feds are the ones after Jimmy.

And we got confirmation that Kim is still alive doing whatever. That sets her up for whatever series they have planned after this series.

If Jimmy gets killed in the finale, hopefully its something surprising and unpredictable and not a big disappointment.

Jimmy didn't commit any of his crimes in Nebraska so there's no reason for the local police to be looking for him..... Yet!

Considering how risky this scheme is they're probably going to pay him a visit pretty soon though.

Slipping barbiturates to a mark that's been drinking heavily all night? That's how Jimi Hendrix died.

Now you're giving those same drugs to a drunk late stage cancer patient that's likely been prescribed all kinds of strong opioids? That's a recipe for a fatal overdose.

These men are strangers so you have no idea what kind of drugs they might have taken before they got to the bar. For all Gene know's they could have already taken a heavy dose of barbiturates in the restroom right before the cab arrived.

Drugging someone so you can break into their home is a felony. One of these marks dies in the middle of this felony that's an automatic murder charge.

It's also inevitable.
 
I think Jimmy had plans to leave the country and that’s y he was mad all the off shore money was gone. I think that’s what the convo with Kim was about. Realizing he was dead broke and can’t make his exit exit… it’s Nebraska a non extradition State or am i wrong
 
This suggests that the cops have no idea that Gene is Saul Goodman. If they did they would have sent more than one car. Probably have the feds with them too.

Either that or their appearance has nothing to do with him.

One thing I'll never understand is why he didn't just leave the country. Disguise himself as an old man with a flower shirt and fisherman's hat, go on a cruise ship, disembark for a 1 hour incursion and never come back
i'm going out on a limb and saying that this has nothing to do with Gene. Probably Marion dies or something. They've been misdirecting with every trailer thus far.
 
Jimmy didn't commit any of his crimes in Nebraska so there's no reason for the local police to be looking for him..... Yet!

Considering how risky this scheme is they're probably going to pay him a visit pretty soon though.

Slipping barbiturates to a mark that's been drinking heavily all night? That's how Jimi Hendrix died.

Now you're giving those same drugs to a drunk late stage cancer patient that's likely been prescribed all kinds of strong opioids? That's a recipe for a fatal overdose.

These men are strangers so you have no idea what kind of drugs they might have taken before they got to the bar. For all Gene know's they could have already taken a heavy dose of barbiturates in the restroom right before the cab arrived.

Drugging someone so you can break into their home is a felony. One of these marks dies in the middle of this felony that's an automatic murder charge.

It's also inevitable.

I doubt the cops are showing up due to them idiots getting robbed.

They were all intoxicated, so when they woke up, it would have taken time for them to realize what happened with their funds after they sobered up.

Jimmy had it setup that if they found out, they would just take it as identity theft from the internet. The local cops don’t care about that shit or have time to deal with it.

When he first got the wallet, he specifically did not take the cash if you remember

It’s also why that dude took the last check from the checkbook. It will be a long time before that drunk fuck made it too the end of the checkbook to see it missing, and by then the last thing he would think was that somebody broke in to steal a blank check.

It’s a possibility they are showing up at Marion’s house. Or showing up to a character that has not been introduced yet.
 
I doubt the cops are showing up due to them idiots getting robbed.

They were all intoxicated, so when they woke up, it would have taken time for them to realize what happened with their funds after they sobered up.

Jimmy had it setup that if they found out, they would just take it as identity theft from the internet. The local cops don’t care about that shit or have time to deal with it.

When he first got the wallet, he specifically did not take the cash if you remember

It’s also why that dude took the last check from the checkbook. It will be a long time before that drunk fuck made it too the end of the checkbook to see it missing, and by then the last thing he would think was that somebody broke in to steal a blank check.

It’s a possibility they are showing up at Marion’s house. Or showing up to a character that has not been introduced yet.

I doubt that the cops in this promo will have anything to do with the burglary.

However, the writers are pretty consistent with the way they hand out justice. When a character is shitty towards others their shitty behavior causes their downfall in one way or another.

Chuck sets up Jimmy to try to take down his legal career. The plan fails, Jimmy dry snitches to the insurance company which is the straw that breaks Chuck's own career.

In breaking bad Gus puts kids on the corner. Walt uses this to convince Jesse that he poisoned Brock and the two of them end up working together to kill him.

There are countless examples throughout both shows. So I'm trying to figure out how this plays out here.

My guess is that they get away with the robbery, but there is an unexpected consequence that ends up doing more damage than getting caught would.
 
I doubt that the cops in this promo will have anything to do with the burglary.

However, the writers are pretty consistent with the way they hand out justice. When a character is shitty towards others their shitty behavior causes their downfall in one way or another.

Chuck sets up Jimmy to try to take down his legal career. The plan fails, Jimmy dry snitches to the insurance company which is the straw that breaks Chuck's own career.

In breaking bad Gus puts kids on the corner. Walt uses this to convince Jesse that he poisoned Brock and the two of them end up working together to kill him.

There are countless examples throughout both shows. So I'm trying to figure out how this plays out here.

My guess is that they get away with the robbery, but there is an unexpected consequence that ends up doing more damage than getting caught would.

That’s what makes the writing of this show and what they did with Breaking Bad so good. All the assumptions you come up with thinking on how it’s going to go….they do a complete 180 on you and do something unexpected that catches you off guard.

With two episodes left, nobody has any clue what the last scene will be or how this will all end.

This is how you do a series.

I’m just hoping they don’t pull a “Sopranos” or “Ozark” on us.

I will definitely Smash my TV if they do.

HaHa!!! :cool:
 
That’s what makes the writing of this show and what they did with Breaking Bad so good. All the assumptions you come up with thinking on how it’s going to go….they do a complete 180 on you and do something unexpected that catches you off guard.

With two episodes left, nobody has any clue what the last scene will be or how this will all end.

This is how you do a series.

I’m just hoping they don’t pull a “Sopranos” or “Ozark” on us.

I will definitely Smash my TV if they do.

HaHa!!! :cool:

I doubt they will but I think this scam will end up with somebody innocent getting killed.

That's what happened when Jimmy tried to call off his scam with Kim and she took a reckless you turn to keep it going.

Meanwhile buddy is trying to call off the scam with Gene and he is also making a reckless move to make sure it happens.

It also seems like in these last two episodes practically every single scene, line, and camera angle is a call back. This has to be a setup for something huge.
 
Not sure if it was pointed out, but I just realized that Don Eladio and Don Hector both co-starred in “Scarface”.

Steven Bauer
Don Eladio

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Mark Margolis
Don Hector

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Shit's about to hit the fan for Saul, finally. No way he's getting out of this one. He's done. :itsawrap:

He's definitely getting caught, but I don't know if he's done.

During Breaking Bad Saul tried to get out of the game multiple times, but was kept in because two bloodthirsty killers named Walter White and Jesse Pinkman threatened his life if he didn't cooperate.

In fact, it could be argued that Saul's life was in constant danger from the moment he first represented Lalo Salamanca. The bullet ridden Suzuki esteem they dragged out of the desert during the trailer would certainly prove that.

It's also worth noting that when the movers gut Saul's mansion in 601 it looks exactly the same as it did in the time lapse in 609. This suggests that every dollar Saul spent came from his massive sandpiper settlement or from the very legitimate legal work he did for his other clients.

He stashed all of his meth money in overseas shell corporations because an upstanding citizen like Saul Goodman would never violate the law or his legal ethics by living off the proceeds of crime.

However, he couldn't turn that money over to the feds because doing so would violate his attorney-client privilege.
 
He's definitely getting caught, but I don't know if he's done.

During Breaking Bad Saul tried to get out of the game multiple times, but was kept in because two bloodthirsty killers named Walter White and Jesse Pinkman threatened his life if he didn't cooperate.

In fact, it could be argued that Saul's life was in constant danger from the moment he first represented Lalo Salamanca. The bullet ridden Suzuki esteem they dragged out of the desert during the trailer would certainly prove that.

It's also worth noting that when the movers gut Saul's mansion in 601 it looks exactly the same as it did in the time lapse in 609. This suggests that every dollar Saul spent came from his massive sandpiper settlement or from the very legitimate legal work he did for his other clients.

He stashed all of his meth money in overseas shell corporations because an upstanding citizen like Saul Goodman would never violate the law or his legal ethics by living off the proceeds of crime.

However, he couldn't turn that money over to the feds because doing so would violate his attorney-client privilege.
even if he skates on breaking bad era things

he looking at a lot of years from the crimes he's committed in nebraska as gene
 
even if he skates on breaking bad era things

he looking at a lot of years from the crimes he's committed in nebraska as gene

As long as he can get rid of the watches and delete the digital camera footage before the cops arrive I don't think he has too much to worry about in Nebraska.

Jeff is being held on a extremely flimsy premise so it's unlikely he will flip. Marion has her suspicions and a fugitive sighting but that's about it. Buddy is not a person of interest and it's unlikely that he'd become one.

In 611 Gene said that it's going to be months before any of their victims realize their accounts have been hacked so there's no reason to believe that Gene was involved.

Without that the worst they can get him for is breaking and entering and burglary. Charges that Saul could defend in his sleep.
 
Ehhh... the episode was not as good as I hoped. Now we can expect Cranston to be in the final episode with Saul, probably a flashback since White is confirmed dead.
 
Why the old lady even think to Ask Jeeves about conman in Albuquerque? Maybe I missed it cuz this episode was kinda boring.
I could be wrong, but on the phone call, he claimed to know both Nebraska AND New Mexico law.
Maybe that set off alarms in her head.
 
Someone else's take:

"
Something I just realized after finishing this episode: Jimmy is always at his most vengeful when people attempt to hold themselves accountable. Note how his true rage at Howard started when Howard confessed that he felt responsible for Chuck’s death. When Kim comes in to sign the divorce settlement, his performance of stone-cold indifference—“Well, have a nice life, Kim!”—is because she’s actually trying (somewhat) to take responsibility for what they’ve done. Jimmy’s actually not too bothered when people try to hold him accountable, with the exception of Chuck. He’ll still do everything in his power to weasel out of the consequences, but he generally doesn’t take it too personally. But when people try to answer for their own bad actions, that’s when Jimmy feels truly, personally attacked. That is the only kind of choice that makes him feel genuinely morally implicated because he knows it’s the one thing he’ll never voluntarily do himself. It’s even worse if Jimmy can tell himself the other person’s choice is actually just an act of self-serving hypocrisy—as when Buddy refuses to rob a man battling cancer after having robbed so many others, or when Kim resigns as a member of the bar association and turns down the Sandpiper money, but doesn’t actually turn herself in. (It’s the mark of how complex the BCS/BB ethical matrix is that the writers actually allow those kinds of actions to be both self-serving and genuinely driven by conscience at the same time.)

I think the reason for this is because of a feeling that started creeping up on me while watching “Nippy”: it doesn’t matter how sweet and kindhearted Jimmy can be at an interpersonal level, his addiction to pulling off these kinds of schemes reveals the con artist’s basically malevolent orientation toward the universe. What I mean is that, in order to do this over and over again, you have to believe, deep down in your soul, that a person’s willingness to trust you isn’t just a reason, but a justification for lying to them, stealing from them, and taking things that aren’t yours to take. If somebody trusts you, it means they deserve to be hurt by you. Remember the flashback scene where a young Jimmy watches his father get conned and then starts stealing from the register that very day? That looked an awful lot like the birth of a lifelong contempt for the world, and the thing about contempt is that it has nothing to do with affection or attachment. Contempt is about an absence of respect, not an absence of liking—you can like people just fine and still have no respect for them, or conversely, absolutely despise someone and still have a basic respect for them. (Recall what Jimmy says to Cliff Main after he manages to scam his way into getting fired and still keeping his severance: “For what it’s worth, Cliff, I think you’re a decent guy.” Cliff: “Yeah, well, for what’s it’s worth, Jimmy, I think you’re an asshole.”) What makes Jimmy’s contempt for the world different from Chuck’s is that Chuck’s vengeance and pettiness is activated when people don’t defer to him (he’s a lot like Walt that way), whereas Jimmy’s is activated by its opposite, when people act in good faith and assume he is as well.

So it makes sense that Jimmy is so infuriated by other people’s attempts to take responsibility for themselves, especially if he considers them to be just as compromised as he is. To admit that you’ve done wrong, or that there are lines you won’t cross is to agree that there are ethical and moral standards that go beyond interpersonal kindness, and that adherence to those standards might require some kind of sacrifice. When you’re willing to cross a line and the other person isn’t, who looks like the asshole?"
 
Why the old lady even think to Ask Jeeves about conman in Albuquerque? Maybe I missed it cuz this episode was kinda boring.
Agreed. That was all a bit of a reach for her to connect those dots with such limited info. Even tho they illustrated how her skepticism was growing, for her to go straight to NM con-artist was a stretch.


Not to mention Saul didnt have a reputation as a "con man" as much as a fugitive attorney with ties to a drug cartel.
 
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Someone else's take:

"
Something I just realized after finishing this episode: Jimmy is always at his most vengeful when people attempt to hold themselves accountable. Note how his true rage at Howard started when Howard confessed that he felt responsible for Chuck’s death. When Kim comes in to sign the divorce settlement, his performance of stone-cold indifference—“Well, have a nice life, Kim!”—is because she’s actually trying (somewhat) to take responsibility for what they’ve done. Jimmy’s actually not too bothered when people try to hold him accountable, with the exception of Chuck. He’ll still do everything in his power to weasel out of the consequences, but he generally doesn’t take it too personally. But when people try to answer for their own bad actions, that’s when Jimmy feels truly, personally attacked. That is the only kind of choice that makes him feel genuinely morally implicated because he knows it’s the one thing he’ll never voluntarily do himself. It’s even worse if Jimmy can tell himself the other person’s choice is actually just an act of self-serving hypocrisy—as when Buddy refuses to rob a man battling cancer after having robbed so many others, or when Kim resigns as a member of the bar association and turns down the Sandpiper money, but doesn’t actually turn herself in. (It’s the mark of how complex the BCS/BB ethical matrix is that the writers actually allow those kinds of actions to be both self-serving and genuinely driven by conscience at the same time.)

I think the reason for this is because of a feeling that started creeping up on me while watching “Nippy”: it doesn’t matter how sweet and kindhearted Jimmy can be at an interpersonal level, his addiction to pulling off these kinds of schemes reveals the con artist’s basically malevolent orientation toward the universe. What I mean is that, in order to do this over and over again, you have to believe, deep down in your soul, that a person’s willingness to trust you isn’t just a reason, but a justification for lying to them, stealing from them, and taking things that aren’t yours to take. If somebody trusts you, it means they deserve to be hurt by you. Remember the flashback scene where a young Jimmy watches his father get conned and then starts stealing from the register that very day? That looked an awful lot like the birth of a lifelong contempt for the world, and the thing about contempt is that it has nothing to do with affection or attachment. Contempt is about an absence of respect, not an absence of liking—you can like people just fine and still have no respect for them, or conversely, absolutely despise someone and still have a basic respect for them. (Recall what Jimmy says to Cliff Main after he manages to scam his way into getting fired and still keeping his severance: “For what it’s worth, Cliff, I think you’re a decent guy.” Cliff: “Yeah, well, for what’s it’s worth, Jimmy, I think you’re an asshole.”) What makes Jimmy’s contempt for the world different from Chuck’s is that Chuck’s vengeance and pettiness is activated when people don’t defer to him (he’s a lot like Walt that way), whereas Jimmy’s is activated by its opposite, when people act in good faith and assume he is as well.

So it makes sense that Jimmy is so infuriated by other people’s attempts to take responsibility for themselves, especially if he considers them to be just as compromised as he is. To admit that you’ve done wrong, or that there are lines you won’t cross is to agree that there are ethical and moral standards that go beyond interpersonal kindness, and that adherence to those standards might require some kind of sacrifice. When you’re willing to cross a line and the other person isn’t, who looks like the asshole?"

It's an interesting take, but I can't agree at all.

He shows indifference to Kim for the same reason any man would. His wife just dumped him and he's not going to give her the satisfaction of turning into a crying blubbering mess in front of her. Especially when he's got a waiting room full of clients.

As for Howard, keep in mind that he conspired with Chuck to make sure that Jimmy never got beyond the mail room. On top of that, he banished Kim to doc review for ridiculous reasons then stole a client right from under her. Then has the nerve to try to hire him again?

Who wouldn't be angry?

Jimmy took a HUGE risk to help Jeff and Buddy make more paper than they ever seen. Now Buddy tries to pull rank and fuck up the hustle?

Again, who wouldn't be angry?

Even more telling, Jimmy deliberately fell on his sword after realizing he went too far trying to scam Irene into settling with Sandpiper. Hardly the actions of somebody who focuses their rage on folks who take responsibility.

What it really comes down to is that Jimmy doesn't suffer fools.

Jimmy's dad was a complete idiot. When Jimmy tried to put him on game he got reprimanded. At that point he knew his dad was going to get ripped off no matter what, so why not take the money himself?

Same with the guys running that photocopy shop. He knew that if a good sales pitch was all it took to get the job, and even offer a raise before he signed on, then they were eventually going to run their business into the ground. Why not take a piece first? To paraphrase an old Christian saying, you don't polish brass on a sinking ship. You tear it from the railings and swim to shore.

There are five seasons full of examples, but you get the point.
 
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