Official Breaking Bad Thread (Vol. Better Call Saul S5)

[airtime143]

Lalo is coming, and boy is he pissed. Looks like he will find out about the lab.
The big question is how Fring manages to contain the knowledge. We know the cartel has no idea about it, and you can be sure the Salamanca clan would love outing him on it, so containment of the existence is a must.

I hate to admit it, but I am starting to feel bad for Howard. He may actually be a decent dude who crossed the wrong people. Looks like his wife shits on him daily despite Howard being on his best behavior.
The relationship is summed up by the shots of the peace effort coffee.
He put all sorts of effort and care making it and presenting it just so.. cleaning up his messes... and the wife sloppily dumps it in her cup and leaves the mess for him to clean up.
That on top of his conversation at his therapists did a great job of summing up his home life in just a couple scenes.


Kim- I need more info on her youth.
What a whiplash on her last night.
The opening was great- she looked scared and sad.
Her mom, though we know she has issues, appeared to make her walk the straight and narrow. threatened her allowance for years.
They walk out, kim tries to hold her hand, and mom pretty much shit on her.
Then, in the car, mom gives her the earrings and I read kims look as being troubled by it.

I thought after that point that kim would eventually "do the right thing" and wind up leaving saul.

They cemented that opinion when they were at the vet- Saul saying the vet was giving up easy money, Kim saying "He knows what he wants".

Then, she gets that opportunity. I thought "here it is- a good way to split kim out of the picture, this is how it is done".


But they got me hook line and sinker- Set me up by showing her being upset about moms bad behavior, talking about "knowing what you want", and dangling that foundation in front of her, and saul being fine with it.

......Then..... BAM!!!!!!!!
She must really have a grudge against Howard.



Great episode- they had me fooled and the end hit like a hand grenade.

 

[Granada]

Lalo is coming, and boy is he pissed. Looks like he will find out about the lab.
The big question is how Fring manages to contain the knowledge. We know the cartel has no idea about it, and you can be sure the Salamanca clan would love outing him on it, so containment of the existence is a must.

I hate to admit it, but I am starting to feel bad for Howard. He may actually be a decent dude who crossed the wrong people. Looks like his wife shits on him daily despite Howard being on his best behavior.
The relationship is summed up by the shots of the peace effort coffee.
He put all sorts of effort and care making it and presenting it just so.. cleaning up his messes... and the wife sloppily dumps it in her cup and leaves the mess for him to clean up.
That on top of his conversation at his therapists did a great job of summing up his home life in just a couple scenes.


Kim- I need more info on her youth.
What a whiplash on her last night.
The opening was great- she looked scared and sad.
Her mom, though we know she has issues, appeared to make her walk the straight and narrow. threatened her allowance for years.
They walk out, kim tries to hold her hand, and mom pretty much shit on her.
Then, in the car, mom gives her the earrings and I read kims look as being troubled by it.

I thought after that point that kim would eventually "do the right thing" and wind up leaving saul.

They cemented that opinion when they were at the vet- Saul saying the vet was giving up easy money, Kim saying "He knows what he wants".

Then, she gets that opportunity. I thought "here it is- a good way to split kim out of the picture, this is how it is done".


But they got me hook line and sinker- Set me up by showing her being upset about moms bad behavior, talking about "knowing what you want", and dangling that foundation in front of her, and saul being fine with it.

......Then..... BAM!!!!!!!!
She must really have a grudge against Howard.



Great episode- they had me fooled and the end hit like a hand grenade.

I didn't get the vet scene. Was Jimmy just getting treated from the fight he had with Howard last episode? His pupils were dilated as hell, so the vet obviously gave him some sort of drug. I feel like I missed something there.

The Kim scene when she was young was great. It shows she really isn't this prim and proper person. Her history isn't as checkered as Jimmy's, but still, she comes from somewhat of a similar place, where she learned unethical behavior. It reminded me of the young Jimmy scene with his father in the convenient store, where he witnessed the customer ripping his father off. Kim learned at an early age how to act innocent, and she's still doing that now. I got the impression that Kim was a decoy. She was pulling a job with her mother; that's how her mother was able to steal those earrings herself. Use the kid as a decoy because kids can't be prosecuted. This scheme with Jimmy isn't her first rodeo. Kim is conflicted about it, but she goes along; exactly what she's doing with Saul, going along, accepting, and even participating in his scheme(s).

I was wondering if the tension between Howard and his wife is so bad because of the Jimmy situation. I read it that way, at least. If so, that's a fantastic touch, because it gives Howard a true reason to destroy Jimmy and even Kim -- because they're not only a danger to his professional life, but also his personal life. I still wish the writers gave a better reason as to why Jimmy and Kim want to destroy Howard though,

They also set up the vacuum guy in this episode. I bet a million dollars Jimmy stole that black book from the vet, and he'll decode all those contacts. Just seems like such a Saul move. Anyways, cool to see how Jimmy gets that contact. Makes me wonder if things get really bad for Kim (maybe she goes too far with this Howard thing), and if vacuum guy disappears her.

 

[airtime143]

I didn't get the vet scene. Was Jimmy just getting treated from the fight he had with Howard last episode? His pupils were dilated as hell, so the vet obviously gave him some sort of drug. I feel like I missed something there.

The Kim scene when she was young was great. It shows she really isn't this prim and proper person. Her history isn't as checkered as Jimmy's, but still, she comes from somewhat of a similar place, where she learned unethical behavior. It reminded me of the young Jimmy scene with his father in the convenient store, where he witnessed the customer ripping his father off. Kim learned at an early age how to act innocent, and she's still doing that now. I got the impression that Kim was a decoy. She was pulling a job with her mother; that's how her mother was able to steal those earrings herself. Use the kid as a decoy because kids can't be prosecuted. This scheme with Jimmy isn't her first rodeo. Kim is conflicted about it, but she goes along; exactly what she's doing with Saul, going along, accepting, and even participating in his scheme(s).

I was wondering if the tension between Howard and his wife is so bad because of the Jimmy situation. I read it that way, at least. If so, that's a fantastic touch, because it gives Howard a true reason to destroy Jimmy and even Kim -- because they're not only a danger to his professional life, but also his personal life. I still wish the writers gave a better reason as to why Jimmy and Kim want to destroy Howard though,

They also set up the vacuum guy in this episode. I bet a million dollars Jimmy stole that black book from the vet, and he'll decode all those contacts. Just seems like such a Saul move. Anyways, cool to see how Jimmy gets that contact. Makes me wonder if things get really bad for Kim (maybe she goes too far with this Howard thing), and if vacuum guy disappears her.

The vet asked if Saul was ok- saul replied he was just a little dry on the skin where "it was applied"
Looks like they are going to smear a cream on Howard that makes him jittery and fidgety with huge pupils to reinforce the cocaine suspicions at the meeting.

The photos with the judge have me intrigued....
My guess is a double cross- let Howard "discover" them and accuse the judge of being crooked...

They are literally setting Howard up to destroy every ounce of credibility.


As for Howard and his wife- i think they had their issues long before saul... after all Howard is still only a couple weeks removed from offering saul the job.
Saul barely hit her radar, she just said " oh, the bowling ball thing?"

I think he was warning her because of what he pulled with the other attorney- staging the hooker thing.

He seems like he is trying to work things out and warning her that Saul may try to send her something like hooker pics or whatnot.

...plus, if they are on their way to divorce, Saul could swing the settlement her way with manufactured evidence.


As for kims grudge.... it must be something.
Perhaps H.H.M. fucked her mother over hard, or stepped on her like an ant in a case in the far past- something nobody at the firm would think twice about but impacted Kim or her mom in a huge way.

There has got to be something nasty in the past- before she was even an adult. Something where she or her family were just a casualty in something HHM had a hand in.
Something so anonymous that she was never tied to it.


If there isn't something like that, then Kim straight up has a villainous streak a mile wide.

 

[zack54attack]

Omaha Beach.

Nebraska license plate..

 

[airtime143]

One other point that I have wondered about.

This is the pic they have been using this season... does it mean anything?
That is post BB saul with the mustache and hair.
But he is putting on a saul jacket.

Are we gonna see him present day mixing it up as Saul for some reason? His weird stalker cabbie, or hunting down Kim? Howard?

Just found it interesting.

 

[Granada]

One other point that I have wondered about.

This is the pic they have been using this season... does it mean anything?
That is post BB saul with the mustache and hair.
But he is putting on a saul jacket.

Are we gonna see him present day mixing it up as Saul for some reason? His weird stalker cabbie, or hunting down Kim? Howard?

Just found it interesting.

View attachment 19936

Great observations Airtime and Zack --

Is he taking the coat off though, or putting it back on? If he is putting it back on, that's awesome.

Makes sense about the vet now, good catch.

 

[airtime143]

Great observations Airtime and Zack --

Is he taking the coat off though, or putting it back on? If he is putting it back on, that's awesome.

Makes sense about the vet now, good catch.

He has got to be putting it on- he left with nothing when he was smuggled out of new Mexico.

There is one other thing that caught my attention.

For the most part, everything shown or said is there for a reason... especially if it pops up without context out of the blue.
When Jimmy was about to buy the Zafiro, the clerk mentioned "I was going to warn you to be careful with the stopper- it is sharp".
That was forgotten when he saw the judge.
We know Kim kept a stopper from a couple seasons back and it still exists. It fell in the gutter in the opening of episode 1.

That is gonna be used to cut something.
I went back to see if it was bloody or bent but it didn't seem to be.


....but- a couple little easter eggs can be found in that opening. The panic room is one, the sign that says "saul Goodman and associates" is another- does he team up with Kim as saul?

But pictured below is the best of them.
In the clean out there is a box labeled "no value".
They add 2 items to it. The vets black coded book is one. The owl stuffed animal is another, so something must be hidden in there.

There is also the mesa verde photo of the horse and rider, A handful of the promotional bouncy balls he used to throw around at cc mobile when he worked there,, a couple burner phones, and 2 inexplicable items- gold ribbon and a couple of pieces of either bubble wrap or celophane.

The black book being in that box...the one with all the criminal contacts and where he got the vacuum guy's number is a who's who of Albuquerque crime... says that everything in that box means something.

Gonna keep my eyes open for those items to make an important showing.

 

[Penny Traitor]

Man I was all in every week on Better Call Saul for the first three seasons and then kind of fell way behind during my transition from cable to streaming.

I still have that AMC+ app I got just to watch The Walking Dead die (kinda sorta) and they kept plugging Saul's final season.

So I spent the past few weeks binging seasons 4 & 5 on Netflix and finally got caught up to the most recent episode the other night.

Now there are telling me I did all this catching up only to have to wait however long to actually see the final episodes???

BOOOOO!!!!

Why you always milking this shit on me AMC?!?!?

So it's one more episode next Monday and that's it until??????

 

[zack54attack]

Man I was all in every week on Better Call Saul for the first three seasons and then kind of fell way behind during my transition from cable to streaming.

I still have that AMC+ app I got just to watch The Walking Dead die (kinda sorta) and they kept plugging Saul's final season.

So I spent the past few weeks binging seasons 4 & 5 on Netflix and finally got caught up to the most recent episode the other night.

Now there are telling me I did all this catching up only to have to wait however long to actually see the final episodes???

BOOOOO!!!!

Why you always milking this shit on me AMC?!?!?

So it's one more episode next Monday and that's it until??????

Not too long. Think Mid-July.

 

[Penny Traitor]

Not too long. Think Mid-July.

Okay, not so bad.

Thought they were going the Breaking Bad route and doing 8 episodes this year and 8 episodes next year.

That was excruciating!

 

[airtime143]

Man I was all in every week on Better Call Saul for the first three seasons and then kind of fell way behind during my transition from cable to streaming.

I still have that AMC+ app I got just to watch The Walking Dead die (kinda sorta) and they kept plugging Saul's final season.

So I spent the past few weeks binging seasons 4 & 5 on Netflix and finally got caught up to the most recent episode the other night.

Now there are telling me I did all this catching up only to have to wait however long to actually see the final episodes???

BOOOOO!!!!

Why you always milking this shit on me AMC?!?!?

So it's one more episode next Monday and that's it until??????

Whoever invented the mid season cliffhanger need to get beaten with a rubber hose.

 

[zack54attack]

Whoever invented the mid season cliffhanger need to get beaten with a rubber hose.

dunno where I read it but I believe it's for awards? Idk doesn't make much sense.

 

[zack54attack]

Bob Odenkirk winds down his journey as Jimmy McGill, uh, Saul Goodman, no, Gene Takavic

As “Better Call Saul” wraps up, the actor looks at his character's long journey, but to what he won't say.

www.latimes.com

 

[airtime143]

I like that he emphasizes that there is no redeeming end- I would be pissed if they tried to play it off that saul was a bit he played for the cartel and he actually was a saint hiding kim in his cellar.

I do feel we will get a Gene becomes Saul to either finish some business or face the music.

I am surprised that I am so in to Kim and Howards storylines after all the focus being elsewhere. They are doing a great job of building them up.

I am almost fully convinced there is a motive for Kim to hate Howard stemming from youth, maybe concerning her mom.

Howard and his P.I. are going to collide with Saul and the people watching him and kim for Lalo- a possible path to eliminating Kim and Howard from the BB timeline is Howard finding out about Saul and the cartel, Reaching out to kim to see what the fuck is going on, and having kim Kill him. Howard dead, Kim in jail.

So many possibilities, and I am sure it is going to be great no matter what way they go- they have already vastly exceeded my expectations.

 

[ZOMBIE@CTESPN]

Damn man got to wait until July after that cliffhanger!!

 

[zack54attack]

Spoiler

Oh. my. god.

 

[airtime143]

Spoiler: absolutely awesome.

Un friggin real.
Howard is in there dropping the truth, and I thought the cliffhanger would be Howard declaring war on Saul and Kim.
Then........BLAMMO!!!!!!!!!

... I knew someone was going to die by the title of the episode, "plan and execution"... but thought it would be the PI or a 2nd tier character.
When Lalo walked in, before he pulled the gun out, when he answered Howards question as to who he was with "nobody", I thought Howard would walk and eventually figure out who Lalo was.
Then the gun comes out and I thought Mikes guys would shoot through the window or something.
But DAMN, there goes Howard!!!!!!!

The other mindblower was Howards P.I. being a Saul and Kim plant- fantastic.
I was trying to wrap my head around the photos-
Sure, it set Howard on edge, But I couldnt figure how it would do any good- I figured howard would do exactly what he did, go get them.
To have them replaced was a great play.
Their plan was impeccable.

So- Here is what is killing me right now.

Why did Lalo show up at Sauls place?
What the hell did Lalo figure out?
We know he was working with fring.
We know he was part of it.

Lalo had to have figured Saul is part of it, but how so?
Was it the shot up car in the dessert?

I especially like the moments of realization Lalo has- and this is one of the reasons I love Gilligans treatment of the audience as intelligent and observant.
He has 2 right in a row. The first is hearing the static on Hectors line- understated but there. He knows Hector is bugged, which means they know he is alive, which explains the heavy presence at the laundry.
He knows then that he has no element of surprise.

Then, he sees the cockroach. That is when he realized Saul was in on it. I do not know what clicked, what pieces he put together, but the cockroach clicked the light on regarding saul.
You saw him regain his composure looking at it, and you knew he had Saul in mind because of what he said when he was in jail and kim came to visit him... paraphrasing here, "he is ok, he is a survivor. like the Cucaracha."

Absolutely outstanding story telling. 10 of 10, will watch again.

 

[airtime143]

@Granada where you at? You catch it yet?

 

[zack54attack]

The cockroach he saw in the sewer reminded him of Saul. Remember when he was talking to Kim and he said Saul is like a cockroach, he will be alright?

 

[airtime143]

The cockroach he saw in the sewer reminded him of Saul. Remember when he was talking to Kim and he said Saul is like a cockroach, he will be alright?

a born survivor, like the Cucaracha.

What I am dying to know is how he put Saul and Fring together.

I mean, he was pretty uneasy about the car Saul left in the dessert, and the story didnt wash in his opinion.
But, what led him there?

We know frings motivation to get Lalo out of the states, Did Lalo follow the logic and reach the same conclusion Fring did, or did he catch something else?

I cant say enough about how much I enjoy the storytelling on this show. They leave big gaudy hints about some things, little subtle hints about others, and hit you out of the blue on others.

Although......

Spoiler

The title tells you someone is getting executed... plan and execution.

the precedent i "747 down over abq" worked in bit by bit over the season leading up to the plane crash in breaking bad.

I sure as fuck hope Vince Gilligan keeps working after Saul. As it stands I will give anything by him a shot.