Better Call Saul: "Plan and Execution"

These reviews assume you watched all of Breaking Bad. If you don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t read this article

"Plan and Execution" serves as the climax to this half-season and boy, what a climax it is. Jimmy and Kim's full plan to discredit Howard is revealed and it goes off without a hitch, despite a last-minute setback. As it turns out, the private investigator Howard hired to track Jimmy is secretly working for them and delivers a new batch of doctored photos to Howard laced with the drug they procured last week. By the end of it, Howard's credibility is damaged if not outright destroyed and the Sandpiper case is settled. The way the episode unfurls this is vintage Better Call Saul. once again allowing the viewer to piece together exactly what is going on rather than spoon-feeding information to them. 

Meanwhile, Lalo returns to Albuquerque and sets up a hiding spot in a sewer grate across the street from where Gus' superlab is located and makes a video documenting his proof to Eladio. Upon realizing his phone call to Hector is bugged however, he concocts a story that he'll raid the lab that night and kill Gus before leaving the sewers. Gus and Mike hear the fake story and make plans to ensure that Mike's men will cover Gus and put Lalo down once and for all.

Jimmy and Kim celebrate their victory when a visibly disheveled Howard shows up and excoriates them for ruining his life. He compares them to Leopold and Loeb and correctly calls Kim out on how her part in this wasn't at all necessary; she did it because she liked it. As Jimmy and Kim tell him to leave, Lalo shows up and insists on talking with them, but not before putting a bullet in Howard's skull.

I mentioned last week that Kim's choice in forgoing her luncheon with the legal group in favor of rescuing the scam was a point of no return for the character. I assumed that this choice would result in her disbarment and while that may still definitely be the case, the immediate consequences here are much more fatal and dire. Regardless of what happens to Kim in the final six episodes (as we already know that Jimmy will survive this), an innocent man is dead because of her and Jimmy's machinations and there really is no going back. I truly have no idea how the show will be able to wrap this storyline up and catch up to the Breaking Bad timeline in just six episodes, but considering how well-crafted this season and really the entire show has been, we're in good hands.

Notes and observations:

* I already mentioned Patrick Fabian's performance a couple of weeks prior, but he truly shows his range in this episode, from the genial way he treats the HHM employee, to his mounting panic during the deposition and his final monologue towards Jimmy and Kim, where he brokenly reveals the state of his marriage to them.

* Early on in the episode, Howard shows a nervous HHM employee how to temper a shaken can of ginger ale by applying centrifugal force to it. He reveals that he got the tip from Chuck and stares wistfully at a portrait of his former partner and friend. The moment serves as a nice reminder of the man whose relationship with Jimmy formed much of the backbone of the show's first few seasons as well as a thesis statement on the slow boil that Better Call Saul has been over the past six seasons

* As sympathetic as Howard has become. I love how the episode also shows he still has a bit of an asshole side, such as his persuasion of Irene to use a wheelchair in the meeting and his determination to fight the settlement despite how many years it would take to the detriment of the clients.

* Thomas Schnauz, who previously wrote and directed last season's phenomenal "Bad Choice Road", also helms this episode and delivers a masterclass in filmmaking, from the wordless opening scene of Lalo returning to Albuquerque to the staging of the final scene in the apartment. Truly, Better Call Saul is weekly film school in television format.

* Speaking of film school, the trio of students that Jimmy once again hires for a bit of last-minute editing are truly some of my favorite side characters on either show. In what will most likely be their final appearance, we get some more insight into each one: the leader being a smug know-it-all, the girl being relentlessly perky and the generic middleman apparently being a jogger in his spare time.

* Let me know your predictions for the final six episodes in the comments below! 

Better Call Saul: "Axe and Grind"

These reviews assume you watched all of Breaking Bad. If you don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t read this article

Last season's sixth episode opened with a flashback with a young Kim and her mother that was juxtaposed with Kim's decision to marry Jimmy, so it's only natural that this episode also juxtaposes Kim's childhood with another major decision she makes. Young Kim is caught shoplifting a pair of earrings and necklace and is scolded by her mother. Upon exiting the store however, Kim's mom is impressed with Kim's crime and reveals that she stole back the items for her. The scene speaks volumes for how warped Kim's childhood was and helps explain her struggles with following the law and her love for Jimmy.

"Axe and Grind" has Kim and Jimmy preparing for "D-Day", the final step of their plan to get Cliff to settle the Sandpiper case and damage Howard's reputation. Once again, the show chooses not to let us in on what the final steps of their plan are, offering us breadcrumbs such as a visit to Dr. Caldera to get a drug that makes the user appear to be high, and Jimmy reuniting with his film crew to film what is presumably an incriminating video. Meanwhile, Cliff, impressed with Kim's pro bono work, offers her a meeting with a legal group that promotes pro-bono work and is looking to expand in New Mexico. Kim's only reservation is that the meeting will take place on "D-Day", though Jimmy assures her that she won't have to be there to pull off the final steps.

On "D-Day" however, Jimmy runs into the real judge they're using as part as of their plan and realizes that they didn't know about one major detail; his arm is in a sling. This is enough for Jimmy to postpone the con and he calls Kim, who is on her way to the meeting, to let her know. After a brief look of indecision, Kim states, "It happens today" and makes a U-turn back to Albuquerque. Whatever happens next week, Kim's made her decision and there's no going back.

Notes and observations:

* Lalo continues his adventures in Germany where he tracks down Casper, one of the men who worked with Ziegler on the superlab and after a lengthy chase, cuts off his leg with an axe and prepares to interrogate him. While the Howard storyline looks like it'll reach it's conclusion next week, I genuinely hope that Lalo's will continue into the back half, if only because Tony Dalton's been criminally underused this first half.

* This is the second episode this season to be directed by a cast member, this time Giancarlo Esposito, who was chosen ironically for a episode where Gus doesn't appear at all. He pulls off some truly excellent shots, such as the scene where Howard prepares a latte for his wife and the hard cut from Jimmy and Kim kissing to Casper chopping wood with an axe.

* Speaking of Howard, the scene following the cold open opens on him getting ready for his day and sharing a conversation with his estranged wife, who unceremoniously dumps the coffee he prepared for her into a thermos. This scene works wonders to make Howard a sympathetic character and has me genuinely worried for him going into the midseason finale.

* I love how subtly this episode (and really the entire season) implies that Kim's reason for continuing the con isn't so much out of concern for the Sandpiper residents and more so out of revenge for the man who treated her poorly at HHM. The look on Rhea Seehorn's face as Kim forces herself to lie about her true feelings regarding Howard to Cliff is a fantastic bit of acting.

* The scene where Mike watches his granddaughter from across the street in his safehouse as he instructs her in stargazing is one of Jonathan Bank's best performances in either show.

* Dr. Caldera shows Jimmy and Kim his black book of clients, which eagle-eyed viewers will remember was in Saul's house in the flashforward in the Season 6 premiere. Kim also happens upon a card for the vacuum cleaner repairman, who was played by the late Robert Forster. Whether this is a hint at her ultimate fate or a misdirect remains to be seen.

* We see the beginnings of the Francesca we know from Breaking Bad, with Jimmy forcing her to make a phone call to HHM and her sarcastic reponse to him ordering her to clean up the toliet after an unruly customer urinates in it.

Barry: "all the sauces"

The show that Barry reminds me of most is Breaking Bad, not just because they're both darkly funny crime dramas that examine the morality of their protagonists, but in how both shows burn through plot in a way that still feels organic. In particular, this season reminds of the final season of Breaking Bad, where the status quo and character dynamics were upended in nearly every episode.

"all the sauces" deals with the fallout from the previous episode, where Barry takes a job from Hank to assasinate Fernando by planting a bomb underneath Cristobal's house. The A-plot is vintage Barry, with Barry having to slowly and cautiously place the bomb underneath the house and use a phone app to detonate it, only for the app to malfunction. What starts as a darkly funny scene turns serious when an unsuspecting Cristobal arrives home only to be confronted by Fernando on his affair with Hank and is faced with the choice to either kill his lover or die himself. It's a tense scene given that the show isn't afraid to kill off characters, but Cristobal manages to escape the house just as Barry finally manages to detonate the bomb and is taken home to Hank by Barry.

Gene is also dealing with the fallout from the previous episode, as he attempts to covince his family to leave LA to escape Barry. only to be told by his agent that his outburst on set has led to an extension of his role on Laws and Humanity. Gene is too afraid of Barry to be concerned with the possible resurgence of his career, even after Joe Mantegna commends him on his work with a veteran and promises to lift the restrainig order he has against Gene (a common running gag throughout the season is alluding to Gene's career and how truly awful his behavior must have been). It takes Barry dropping by with the money he got from the hit and a promise to never bother Gene again for the latter to change his mind about running away.

Gene isn't the only person that Barry has burned bridges with. Sally's show Joplin has it's premiere where Barry fails to show up and Sally is a nervous wreck over presenting the show. Her tune changes quickly when she learns that the show has received near critical acclaim and she becomes emotional on the podium. For someone who has breathed life into what could've easily been a cartoonishly drawn character, Sarah Goldberg gives what is her best performance yet in this episode, making Sally's reaction feel organic and natural with what we know of the character. It was only a matter of time before Katie came to Sally with her observation that Barry is a violent person, but what's truly surprising is that Sally actually listens to her and proceeds to break up with Barry. While I wish that we got more scenes between Sally and Barry to better build up the breakup, the scene is expertly performed by both Hader and Goldberg and will undoubtedley fuel Barry's downward spiral going forward.

Notes:

* While Barry is dealing with the consequences of his actions, Fuches pretends to be a private investigator and visits the family of the man Barry killed back in the pilot to inform them of Barry's involvement and how the police let him get away. This storyline is mainly set up for what will presumably be the backbone of the second half of the season, but it's a nice bit of continuity and establishes Fuches as a slimy mastermind.

* D'Arcy Carden hasn't had much to do in this season as I would've liked, but every scene with her in this episode is hilarious, from her critique of Sally's speech to hogging the limelight on the red carpet.

* Plenty of humor in an otherwise heavy episode, such as Hank's setting up the detonator app on Barry;'s phone and Gene's agent (played by Fred Melamed) listing the various insults people have leveled against Gene due to his past behavior.

Better Call Saul: "Black and Blue"

These reviews assume you watched all of Breaking Bad. If you don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t read this article

Even more so than the previous episode, "Black and Blue" is more concerned with table-setting rather than moving the plot forward, yet this is typical of the show. There are only two episodes left until the midseason break and it's important to put the dominoes in place so the subsequent episodes can knock them all down.

Howard is confronted by Cliff about his "drug problem". He quickly pieces the puzzle together and realizes that Jimmy is behind all of these strange events. He confronts Jimmy at the boxing club and challenges him to a boxing match to settle the score once and for all. Jimmy at first refuses, but the temptation of knocking Howard on his ass proves to be too tempting for him to pass up. Howard proceeds to knock Jimmy down, then states that he hopes their beef is settled. However, Howard is too smart to realize that things between him and Jimmy are far from over, and he hires a private detective to tail Jimmy.

Kim is justifiably paranoid now that she knows Lalo is alive. She barricades the door and stays up all night. Jimmy is still out of the loop and vainly attempts to comfort her by stating that he's glad Lalo is "dead". She's not the only one. Gus spends the entire episode waiting for Lalo to strike and we see how it is affecting him. Mike takes him to the unfinished superlab in an attempt to calm his nerves, but Gus is still unconvinced and leaves a gun in a hiding spot. In theory, this is the most dramatically inert part of the episode as we know that Gus survives to Breaking Bad, yet it's a testament to Giancarlo Esposito and Melissa Berstein's direction that these scenes are still compelling.

After three episodes of being absent, Lalo makes his reappearance, ironically far away from our key players. He charms Werner Ziegler's widow Margarethe, then proceeds to break into her house and search Werner's office. The scene where Margarethe comes home early is easily the tensest part of the episode, as we know Lalo has no qualms about murdering innocent people. At the last second however, Lalo notices a ruler encased in Lucite and leaves through the window before Margarethe can discover him. How the ruler will be used by Lalo to implicate Gus remains to be seen, but the showrunners have earned enough goodwill that the payoff will be worth it.

Notes:

* Out of all the main cast, Patrick Fabian has had the least amount of screentime, yet he has succeeded in transforming Howard from a one-dimensional villain to one of the show's most tragic characters. The same is true for this episode, with the boxing match giving him a chance to show off his physicality as well as his dramatic chops.

* Francesca returns as Jimmy's secretary. She's clearly unimpressed with Jimmy's setup and only stays after Jimmy offers her a signing fee and allows her to decide on the decorating.

* Kim meets with her former paralegal Viola, who sings her praises regarding her pro-bono work, all the while unaware of Kim's less than ethical work involving Howard and the Sandpiper case.

* It's rote to say that Better Call Saul's cold opens are a thing of beauty, but that's even more so in this episode, where we see the encasement of the ruler that Lalo will discover by the episode's end. Similar to the cold open in "Rock and a Hard Place", writer Alison Tatlick trusts that the viewer will piece together the puzzle by the episode's conclusion.

Barry: "ben mendelson"

It was only a matter of time before Barry returned to killing. "ben mendelson" is a necessary slow down from the intensity of the previous two episodes, focusing mainly on Barry's self-delusion and the reality of the situation around him.

Barry thinks that things between him and Gene are good now that he got Gene a part on Laws and Humanity. He genuinely believes that him and Gene can have the same relationship that they had before Gene discovered that he killed Janice. The scene where Gene asks him if Janice suffered and Barry's attempts to deflect show just how self-deluded he is. Janice's murder will forever drive a wedge between them, yet Barry's too egotistical to accept this. It takes Gene punching him during the shoot and telling him to stay away from him and his family for Barry's rose-tinted glasses to fall off and for him to realize that his connection with Gene is severed. He accepts Hank's offer because he truly has nowhere else to go, so why not embrace the worst aspects of himself?

The episode checks back in with Fuches as he is adapting to life in Chechnya. Like Barry, he initially rejects Hank's offer of returning to LA until the latter tells him that Barry no longer wants to kill him. The phone call Fuches has with Barry shows that he is just as self-deluded and egotistical as Barry, if not more so, in that he believes Barry owes him an apology for trying to kill him. His caretaker (and lover?) Anna attempts to console him by telling him a sixteenth-century parable about choosing between vengeance and forgiveness. Sociopath that he is, Fuches can only focus on the vengeance aspect of the story. The ominous music that plays over the end credits promises that this already dark season will be even darker.

Notes:

* Elsie Fisher's Katie is easily the best new addition on this season of Barry. Her facial expressions during her talk with Natalie as the latter defends Barry and her interview is an excellent bit of silent acting speaks volumes about how she's the only person on this show who can see Barry for who he truly.

* Henry Winkler gives perhaps his best performance yet in this episode. His thousand-yard stare during the episode's cold open and incredulous glare as Barry attempts to console him about Janice's death

* Some nice continuity from the previous episode where the showrunner of Laws and Humanity remembers Gene as having thrown hot tea in his face back when he was a PA. Gene having to be reminded of this specific incident speaks volumes about how tumultuous his past must've been and leads into the moment where Barry compares his sins to his own.

Better Call Saul: "Hit and Run"

After the cartel-heavy first three episodes of the season, "Hit and Run" focuses almost exclusively on Jimmy and Kim's storyline and their plan to discredit Howard It's a much slower episode than the previous ones, but not less captivating due to having the same level of quality we've come to expect from this show.

Jimmy and Kim continue their scheme to paint Howard as a drug-addicted low life, with a hilarious sequence involving Breaking Bad alum Wendy as Jimmy steals Howard's car and pretends to joyride as him while kicking Wendy out of his car right in front of Cliff Main and Kim. The plan is seemingly a success as Cliff's image of Howard is once again shaken, with the added bonus of Cliff offering to give Kim access to a group of lawyers that specialize in pro-bono work, Kim's true passion.

 But not all is well. Jimmy is now a pariah at the courthouse due to the knowledge that he scammed the courts to get Lalo Salamanca off of murder charges and has received an influx of criminal clients now that he's known as "Salamanca's guy". Kim realizes she's being followed by a mysterious car and eventually confronts them head-on, only to have a conversation with Mike who reveals to her that Lalo is still alive. It's an excellent scene between Seehorn and Banks as we see Kim's stoic demeanor crack at the possibility of Lalo coming after her and Jimmy. 

Both of these storylines intersect at the end when Jimmy takes Kim to his new "temporary" office (the same office that will be his main office in Breaking Bad). Kim is clearly apprehensive, yet she chooses to withhold the news of Lalo's survival from Jimmy, an inversion of last episode where Jimmy chose to keep his knowledge of Lalo's assassination attempt from Kim. We know Jimmy will eventually learn of Lalo's survival given that years later he will name drop him when Walt and Jesse kidnap him. It's only a matter of when he'll learn it.

Notes:

* Rhea Seehorn directs this week's episode and proves to be just as talented behind the camera as she is on-camera. Here's a link to an article where she talks about her experience with this episode, it's truly infectious.

* While the episode mainly focuses on Jimmy and Kim, we also get a scene with Gus and Mike where we get to see Gus' growing paranoia over the Lalo situation and his dissatisfaction with Mike's hired help. Giancarlo Esposito has always been a great actor, but we get to see new depths with Gus' normally unflappable demeanor shaken.

* Wendy isn't the only Breaking Bad character to appear in this episode. Among Jimmy's new clients is a much healthier-looking Spooge, who will get his head crushed by an ATM in Season 2's standout "Peekaboo".

* I feel like the writers missed an opportunity to have Howard's therapist be the same as Marie Schrader's therapist, but it probably would've felt too cutesy in an episode with 

* Kim identifies Mike as the person who saved Jimmy in the desert in last season's "Bagman". It's also in her character to recognize him as the parking lot attendant from way back in Season 1.

* Lalo has been MIA for the past few episodes, but it's a testament to both the writers and Seehorn's performance that his presence is still felt. Hopefully he'll show up soon though, if only because I miss Tony Dalton's charismatic and terrifying performance.

Barry: "limonada"

If the previous seasons of Barry presented the question of "Is Barry a good person?", then Season 3 is answering that question with a resounding "no". "limonada" is one of the darkest episodes of the series, in that it doesn't shy away from Barry's warped outlook on life and the destruction he is weaving in the lives of the people closest to him.

Continuing from last week's episode, it's revealed that Barry's plan for earning Gene's forgiveness amounts to getting him an acting job to revitalize his career. From the start, it's clear how self-centered Barry's "good deed" is and how it's simply a way for Barry to absolve himself of his sins. We see this in the way he viciously tears into Sally when she is unable to give Gene a part on her show (one of Hader's most terrifying moments) and threatens to kill Gene when he refuses to acquiesce to Barry's self-deluded quest for forgiveness. He refuses to consider how Gene's checkered past has basically blacklisted from the industry and ends up using a speech that Gene gave him about how he made him a better human being to get him a part on Laws and Humanity.

Gene himself wants nothing to do with Barry, as we see when he eventually escapes from Barry's trunk and makes a run for it. It's a scene that somehow manages to be both terrifying and hilarious and ends with Gene succeeding in escaping Barry, only to come home and find Barry waiting for him. It is here that Barry threatens his son and grandson, and we see the true fear in Gene's expression when he's forced to say he loves Barry. It's a wonderful bit of acting by Henry Winkler and Bill Hader and drives home just how the Barry/Gene relationship has permanently changed.

Notes:

* Cristobal's father-in-law Fernando arrives in LA and announces his plan of raiding Hank's hideout and killing all the Chechens so Cristoball can return home. Fortunately, Hank is alerted by Cristobal and manages to evacuate, only for the latter to then break up with him and tell him to go on the run. It's a subplot that manages to be both funny and heartbreaking, even if the fifteen second shot of Hank's face as he watches Cristobal drive away is the one flaw in an otherwise superbly directed episode.

* Sally's storyline intertwines with Barry's in how afraid she now is of him by his outburst. We see her regressing back into the person she was during her relationship with her ex-husband when she leaves work early to make him dinner and buy him a new Xbox controller (a call-back to the premiere when Barry complained about his controller not working), as well as apologizing to him rather than the other way around. Added to her growing stress is the news that her show's premiere is being pushed and I don't see this relationship ending well.

* The actress who plays Sally's on-screen daughter bears witness to Barry's outburst and approaches her coworkers to discuss reporting Barry, only to be told that there's nothing to be done, as Barry wasn't physically violent with Sally and it risks their jobs if they get involved.

* No Fuches this week.