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.
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