Better Call Saul (AMC) TV Show • Page 99

They really telegraphed that fall.

 

I thought he was going to run into the janitor

 

me too

 

Is this the last time we see Gene? I think Jimmy's back.

 

i think we get a jimmy episode then 2 gene's

 

Ok great episode, but

I’m not a fan of how they re-casted the cab driver. Part of the intrigue when he first showed up is that he had a menacing touch. This portrayal comes off as more hapless and dopey. Loved how it ended though.

 

scheduling conflict

 

The preview for next week was still in B&W. My theory now is we never leave the Gene timeline again, but color returns as he “becomes” Saul again. I haven’t read anything about the cameo, but it could be done with security footage or something along those lines while still in the gene timeline

 

I think the cab driver recast is one of the most over-blown issues of this entire series. It really didn't make a difference to me. And personally, I enjoyed this change of pace episode. Yeah it's a bit strange getting it so close to the end, but I thought it worked.

 

I just wasted 50 minutes watching S01E10 (instead of today's episode S06E10) and was just so damn confused on it... I was like, I swear I've seen this episode before, maybe it's just a really weird flashback episode.

 

I had completely forgot about the cab driver, and I’m sure the recast didn’t help (though I love Pat Healy, so that was cool). I was confused who this random dude was

I’m really curious where the final episodes will go. I was actually hoping to see some pre-BB but full Saul Goodman shenanigans

 

We’ll almost definitely be going back again at some point because we still have yet to see Walt and Jesse in their cameos. Also, Jeff the cab driver’s mom mentioned in this episode that she’s glad Gene is around because Jeff fell in with a “bad crowd” back in Albuquerque which certainly gave me some pause. I feel like, if and when we go back again to the Saul era, we might just see who it is that Jeff is running with and it could be potentially very dangerous for Jimmy. He told Jeff to say “we’re done” after the mall heist, but Jeff could very easily go back to his “friends” in Albuquerque and alert them to Saul’s whereabouts in an attempt to keep Saul’s schemes going. I don’t know, I felt like his mom said that line for a reason.

 

the opening credits of this episode were very cool

 

When I say I think we’re done with Gene, I don’t mean that last night’s is the last episode in that timeline.

I just think he’s going to leave Omaha. He’s tired of hiding.

 

The recast thing didnt bother me as i didnt even remember what he looked like since it was a cold open (or close?) from years ago. There were plenty of context clues to alert you that this was the continuation of that story.

 

I felt like that episode was perfect. We were sort of at a lull in the story after the time jump anyway so I didn't expect anything too insane right out of the gate - although even that episode was intense for me since I really have no idea where the story is going at all now that we're in new territory.

 

I loved the episode. It was enthralling in the way watching Mike do stuff was, a great Jimmy style scam and I think a good break after three straight intense episodes. The way everything ramped up to the end of Jimmy, kinda needed a little reset to the end of Gene, especially since nobody really knows where this part is going

 

I felt this way too. We’ve seen Jimmy hatch schemes and plan for them before but the measurements and then the mock layout in the snow, and how he made Jeffy run it while explaining it all felt very Mike-ish

 

So I think I will judge this episode fully, and like it more or less when all is said and done and we get the full series worth of context.

I was not sure how to read into so much of what happened. I don't know if we we're supposed to have sympathy for Jimmy/Saul/Gene or not. I interpreted it as that no matter what has happened/happens to him, and how lonely he is because of his choices, and how far he's fallen, he can still be callous to people when the opportunity for a con presents itself. Sure, it was self preservation with Jeff, but with the suit at the end, I read it as that he's never going to learn his lesson. But depending on what happens in the next 3, it could read totally different by the end.

We will see, but I am starting to sense that this is going to paint Saul as a villain by the end and that there won't be a happy ending and redemption.

 

Were we ever supposed to see Saul as a good person?

 

I'm so torn on this episode and have so many thoughts.

I completely understand the need for a Gene episode, it's just been really hard to care or be invested because we've gotten these tiny little slivers over the last 7 years. Over the last 7 years we've seen Gene make some cinnamon rolls, reminisce over old videotapes, get stuck in the garbage room, rat on a shoplifter, and then tell him to get a lawyer, pass out, go to the hospital, take a cab home, and then get paranoid.

I fully understand this is where Jimmy McGill is at his point in life, post being disappeared by the vacuum guy, but it's been a very mundane and reserved experience. We don't really get much about him reflecting on his life, his past, the former people in his life. We just get him going about his days. After having seen the entire series of Better Call Saul, what I want from Gene scenes are reflections and dealing with his life.

I thought for a Slippin' Jimmy Gene scheme, this is about as good of an episode as you could have, I just wasn't craving it after the 3 best episodes of the series with high stakes.

Carol Burnett was fantastic. The cab guy recast was weird at first, but then I didn't care.

I guess I didn't quite understand the entire premise of the scheme and why the cabbie would take it. Gene suspects the Cabbie has made him, and that it's only a matter of time before he is turned into the police. So Gene somehow tracks him down to his house, pulls a con on his mother, waits for the guy to get home, threatens him, and then offers to get him "into the game" to pull off a very risky one-time heist with the help of Gene for a grand total of maaaaaybe $15-20k max. Rather than turning in on the run FBI most Wanted Saul Goodman for probably at least $250k, $500k?+

I know the cab driver isn't the brightest, but this seemed a bit far-fetched. I enjoyed how at the end it was a double cross scheme to add mutually assured destruction so that the cab driver would never turn Gene in....but now if the Cab driver gets greedy (which it sure looks like he is) and if he is ever caught by the police for doing more criminal things without the help of Gene (which will probably happen) then he has a wonderful bargaining chip to lessen a sentence....Gene.


I thought Jerry Gergich was perfectly cast and did a phenomenal job, but it also took me out of the show because I was literally watching Jerry eat a cinnamon roll in front of Gene and I couldn't suspend my disbelief.

At the end, we see Gene looking at the flashy shirt and tie and I'm not sure what the ending really meant. Was he hungry for more? Fully back to slippin jimmy? Wanting to be flashy again? Putting it away for good?


I'm not expecting this insane bombastic plot all the time from this show, because I know it's not Breaking Bad...I guess at this point I'm just really invested in Jimmy's relationship with Chuck and Kim, Jimmy reckoning with his life and his choice, Gus' backstory, maybe more of Lalo's and Mike's, and more scenes from different perspectives of Breaking Bad.

I fully understand how this episode could have been necessary, just hard to downshift for me from the last 3 phenomenal episodes into another Slippin' Jimmy scheme. Maybe I'm also just struggling through the first season on a rewatch with my girlfriend where there are so many montages and slow moments and repetitive scenes walking around, talking in the bathrooms at court, breaking breadsticks and more.

I really hope they can stick the landing with these last 3 episodes and will be very disappointed if we get another fully Gene episode of him trying to scheme again.

The rest of these last few seasons have been absolutely wonderful though.

 

In BB no, but I always assumed that this show was going to give context to imply that Saul was the end result of being mistreated by Chuck & Howard, and constantly trying to do the right thing but being thwarted. Later seasons, and even this Gene flashforward, is giving me pause on that idea. It was certainly a theme early on, and it's still debatable, so we'll see how the chose to wrap up the morally ambiguity of who Saul is and who Gene is.

 

People are really complex, but my friend and I have been debating back and forth for some time now about Jimmy and Kim and which one of them really had it in them to be bad. I know that Wine and Roses and the song from it were in relation to an old movie where a guy gets his new partner into drinking and she ends up becoming a bigger alcoholic than he is, and all the implications of that.

We debated a bit back and forth about who was "Worse" between Jimmy and Kim because Kim the last season or so was pushing harder and harder for the Howard scam and getting off on the schemes. I insisted though, that Kim always had a moral backbone and nearly all of her getting back at people were against people she felt had taken advantage of the less fortunate, the people she always cared about. Whether it was the big boss man at Mesa Verde and how he treated the homeowner on the plot of land, or the Kettleman's who were ripping off poor Native people in tax schemes, or the douchey stock broker guy who wanted to rip off people, or if it was Howard Hamlin and his privilege and how he used his position of power to stomp on and embarrass Kim when she tied herself too close to Jimmy.

Kim has constantly shown that her heart lies with wanting to represent those that can't afford it, and support them, she just got too caught up and blinded by the scam on Howard and unfortunately, it got in front of what she truly cared about because she was intoxicated by it....she also has a history of earning the love and feeling closer to people like her mother by doing these schemes in a very unhealthy toxic relationship pattern.

Jimmy on the other hand, has sort of always been out for himself. From his early years of busting scams and scheming...sure he was under the shadow of his successful brother, but since he was a young child he didn't feel bad that his dad was getting ripped off...he thought his dad was pathetic and a sheep, so he wanted to be a lion.

Jimmy was the one pumping the brakes on the Howard scam because he's good at scamming and knew that they were flying too close to the sun, Kim is not as clever and sleek as Slippin' Jimmy, she's a tourist enjoying her time in the vice that is the scamming world, it's not truly at the heart of who she is.

That's why ultimately Kim made the biggest sacrifice, she gave up what she wanted and loved so much, Jimmy, because it was hurting other people. Jimmy was ready to compartmentalize and go about his life. She wasn't willing to let other innocent people get hurt again. She also mentioned that separate they are ok, but together they are pretty bad and hurt people.

I think the biggest tell is what Kim has been up to these last few years, because without Kim, Jimmy became Saul Goodman who works with child murderers, sexually harrases his employee, gets a bunch of prostitutes and ultimately becomes a sleazy piece of shit. (sure, it's all a sad front to cover his deep brokenness, but he's still doing it!) I don't see Kim Wexler doing any of those things.

I think what would be the most crushing ending possible, and I kind of hope they do this. Is that at the end Gene/Jimmy runs into Kim and she's happy. She has a partner, maybe a family. She has a law practice helping the misfortunate. Apart from Jimmy, she is succeeding and not falling into those temptations. And she sees Gene, how low he has come, working at a Cinnabon, depressed, on the run from the law. And she just kind of looks at him sadly, with a little bit of pity, and then walks away.

I'm just not sure how easily we will see Jimmy suddenly have a complete turnaround of who he is as a person, fully reckon with and accept his relationship with his brother, and suddenly be a better person. Even though it didn't absolve Walt, he went back and killed the Nazis and rescued Jesse from the prison he himself put him in, and admitted to Skylar he was selfish the whole time. What can Jimmy really do to get some sort of absolution at this point? Admit to Howard's wife what happened? Donate whatever money he has stashed away to help a cause Kim cares about?

 

I really feel like the break shoulda been between Fun & Games and this one, would've been a lot easier to swallow. this episode was good but following the past 3 run with something like this is almost too much lmao

 

I trust that this episode was placed here for a specific reason and am just gonna wait to see the final 3 for full context. That being said, I do agree that this was jarring after the last 3 episodes haha