Better Call Saul: Fun and Games

 "What you talk about is not justice. What you talk of is revenge. It never ends."

Thus speaks Nacho's grieving dad, and he speaks for decency. In a world where all the main characters- including Jimmy, Mike and now Kim-  are tainted by association with a morally reprehensible cartel, that destroys lives and exploits the hopeless, he speaks the truth. And a truth at the core of the show: Chuck and Howard, arrogant though they could be, were right. Because the law, despite its flaws, is everything. The alternative, as has been known ever since Aeschylus' Oresteia, is a never ending cycle of revenge.

And ironically this arises from Mike, with his code of ethics, trying to do the right thing. But there is ethics and there is ethics. This episode seems, for most of its length, to be about tidying up loose ends from last episode's momentous events. But it's so much more.

We see Gus defend himself, successfully, to Don Eladio from the accusations of Hector. It seems he's won, and is now master of all he surveys. Yet only now do we get a glimpse intoa different Gus, a wine snob, a sophisticate... and, secretly. I'm sure, from the probable bigotry of the cartel, gay. Of course he is. It never crossed my mind before, but of course he is. And it's fascinating that we see this further layer of the character now.

But we also see the consequences ogf Howard's humiliation and death. HHM is destroyed, the names of Hamlin and McGill both now discredited: Jimmy destroys all he touches. And yet, in an excruciating scene with Howard's wake, it is Kim who cruelly gaslights his widow.

But then... wow. It hits hard. Kim loves Jimmy (he thinks he loves her, I'm sure, but is he capable of feeling the real thing?), but she leaves him, as they're morally bad for each other. And she's no longer a lawyer. This is her penance, her redemptive sacrifice, her quest for atonement.

And these are things that Jimmy will never understand.

No.

Not Jimmy. Saul. All ties to Jimmy's past are now gone. We end the episede with the Saul we know from Breaking Bad. Wow. Things are moving fast. Television has seldom been better than this.