Better Call Saul: Rock and Hard Place

 "Today you are going to die..."

Obviously this episode is all about Nacho. Jimmy doesn't even appear until sixteen minutes into the episode. Not that things don't happen with him: his and Kim's plans to screw over Howard proceed apace. Yet again we see that she's really into him. Huell, by contrast, sees right through him in a nice little scene. And Kim and Jimmy learn that Lalo is supposedly dead, while Jimmy has an off ramp for his complicity with Lalo... but will he take it?

Still, this episode is not about Jimmy.

My thoughts keep drifting to those opening few seconds as the camera lingers on some flowers that survive, precariously, in the New Mexico desert. This episode consists of Nacho slowly learning that there's no way he ends up surviving this, however much he begins the episode with some optimism, having escaped for now. Yet in order to dodge being immediately caught he has to literally submerge himself in oil. There's only one way his being on the run can end.

The phone call with his dad is heartbreaking: you feel, suddenly, that this is their last goodbye, and his dad is still disappointed at how Nacho's life has gone. Nacho suddenly realises that the cartel could get at his dad.

And so... he, Mike and Gus work out an ending in which his death is with dignity, on his own terms, and protects both his dad and Gus himself. But watching the events play out is gut-wrenching and unforgettable. Nacho getting the satisfaction of telling Hector what he really thinks... and that final shot, with Hector impotently shooting at a dead man.

Wow. This episode will haunt me.

Better Call Saul: JMM

 "No rings. Okey dokey..."

After last episode's deeply dishearening last line, we begin the last line with the world'd least romantic wedding ever, presided over by a very bored and disengaged judge. No rings, no wedding guests, witnesses who are not exactly friends, no celebration... and let's say the two new spouses are not exactly equally invested. Poor Kim. This is the wedding she gets... and this is the wedding she gets. Even worse, she really should know what she's marrying, and gets more reminders later when she realises Jimmy- no, Saul- is being forced to get Lalo out on bail and is quite happy to use this to get money. Oh, Kim...

She isn't in Breaking Bad, of course. I fear for her. Perhaps a fate even worse than ruin awaits. And she's a good, decent person.

Interestingly. Kim, the other lawyers and Kevin all reconcile, after a little brutal honesty on both sides, in a situation of genuine mutual respect. No Jimmy here: these people are all grown-ups.... and that makes the situation worse. Kim is decent, professional, respected. As Kevin says, she could do a LOT better.

Mike is a grown-up too- we see him doing the patient hard work of making amends to his family, and successfully. But the ongoing cold war between Gus and Lalo, with Nacho and his dad in the middle, is getting increasingly complex. Lalo's engaged Jimmy to get him out on bail so he can skedaddle... so why is Mike, on Gus's behalf, handing him the means to do so on a plate? Gus has reason to be furious at Lalo: I suspect the latter is not long for this world, and Gus has plans to kill Lalo in ways thst won't start a "war". The discussions with Lydia and Gus' desperate old German friend is fascinating, pointing ahead to the Madrigal stuff but hinting at quite a long history. Giancarlo Esposito continues to play Gus with such exquisite nuance.

Yet it feels very much as though big things are being set up. Despite this, the episode is as gripping as ever.

Better Call Saul: Something Stupid

 "Dude, I don't need to be a lawyer, all right? I'm a magic man."

It's a nice little trick, to allow at least four months to pass between episodes. It gives us the nice little split screen montage at the start with Kim and Jimmy. Both go through their everyday lives, their very different jobs, Kim's arm slowly heals (it's a nice touch later on when we see her nervously driving), and the two of them slowly drift apart, failing to communicate as their relationship deteriorates. In bed, they lie in opposite directions. They don't talk at mrealtimes. (Incidentally, why is it that every single evening meal on an American television show inclides a bottle of wine, even if it's just a random Tuesday?).

We also have the future meth lab develop, albeit problems. And, of course, we have Hector regain consciousness to the point at which we know him in Breaking Bad. And then we get the scene, in Gus' lovely kitchen, where bhe and the doctor discuss Hector... and he makes it clear, with a subtle sadistic grin, that he wants treatment to end here, and we know why: Hector's body is a prison, he's fully conscious, and his life is a living Hell.

It's a dark episode. Jimmy has an unfortuate run-in with a pretty damn reasonable and upstanding cop, with Huell ending up assaulting a police officer. Jimmy is not yet reinstated... although we get to see him picking a location for, surely, the premises we know from Breaking Bad, with an office which Jimmy works out will be smaller than Kim's. Ouch.

Awkwardly, it falls to Kim, in denial about the fact she's channeling her inner Jimmy, who needs to wheel and deal and help Huell. We end on an intriguing bit of uncertainty. This is a fascinating dark episode. But not a happy one.

Better Call Saul: Chicanery

 "My brother, whatever else may be said about him, is quite clever."

Before I write a blog post, I invariably look at iMDb in order to get the names of the less regular actors to put in those labels at the bottom. Thgis time, though, I couldn't help but notice that this episode had been rated 9.7. That is, it has to be said, a bit good. And I'm not surprised. This may be the finest courtroom drama since Witness for the Prosecution.

Other things happen too, though, although for once there's no Mike this episode. We see Kim having professional success with Mesa Verde, impressing her clients. Jimmy isn't ruining and destroying her career yet... but the foreshadowing is obvious. Then we have the flashback, tintred blue, of Chuck enlisting Jimmy to go to elaborate lengths to hide his "condition" from Rebecca. This, of course, is also foreshadowing.Yet there are other character moments, too. Chuck and Rebecca, with their cultured cosmopolitanism, do not live in Jimmy's world. And Chuck, while disapproving of Jimmy's tricks, is happy to benefit from them.

Yet the courtroom drama is, of course, exquisite, a masterclass in psychologicak manipulation and, well, chicanery. Jimmy's position starts out as extraordinarily weak, and yet Chuck is humiliated and destroyed. His outburst at the end is ironic- it makes him seem unhinged, persecuting his poor, innocent, doting brother, yet every word is literally, unambiguously true.

Breaking Bad: To'hajilee

 "Don't drink and drive. But, if you do, call me."

Wow. This is one of the most intricately plotted episodes of television I've ever seen, with all the interlocking pieces of the elegantly structured plot balanced out perfectly as we see the intertwining of two intertwining yet opposing plans- one from Walt, the other from Hank and Jesse- in a zero sum game in which they try and destroy each other...

Yet we end with a chaotic shootout which neither side wanted and neither side can control, ending in the ultimate cliffhanger. Will Hank survive? His emotional last phone call to Marie is ominous. There's no status quo now. No one is safe. Walt is dying, it's just a question of how soon, and desperate. And the acting is, of course, as superlative as the writing (and directing, much artier this week), with Cranston, Paul and Norris worthy of particularly high praise.

Yet there are also signs of things breaking down for poor Lydia without Walt, whose absence is crashing the quality of meth with uneducated criminals taking the place of a first class chemist. Things fall apart everywhere. No centre, it seems, can hold. The last fifteen minutes, certainly, show is that we are now approaching the end, and anything can happen.

Breaking Bad is better than ever. Also, it's very nearly over...

Breaking Bad: Buried

 "We are here to do a job, not channel Scrooge McDuck!"

This is it, then. The final stretch of the final act begins. Jesse's very depressed, dropping millions of dollars around while spinning around, on his back, on a roundabout. Symbolic much? Also, we see how bloody cold Lydia is as he has a load of meth underlings slaughtered purely because their substandard cooking is harming the bottom line... and then not wanting to see the bodies of the men she's just killed as the ever-gentlemanly sociopath Tom guides her gently through.

But this episode is mainly about the reverberations caused by the now-open war between Walt and Hank- although Walt doesn't wank to send Hank to "Belize". Yet. But it's 3-D chess, as Hank tries to turn Skyler without- yet- realising how exposed she s. Marie is not so naive, and the scene between the two sisters is extraordinary.

Everyone is exposed, though, and Walt's money isn't the only thing that gets buried in ths episode. Walt, his cancer returning, says in a moment of weakness that he'll take the fall if Skyler can use the money to support their kids... but that's not how it works. Meanwhile, for Hank, he needs evidence. He can'tjust tell the DEA- and he's right: the moment it's known that Heisenberg is his brother-in-law, he's an ex-cop. Yet saying nothing potentially exposes him to prosecution too...

The rest of the season looks to be absolutely gipping. This is first class, tension-filled, perfectly shot character drama.