*Spoilers Ahead*
We’re at the half-way point of this first season of Better Call Saul and the show has been running along at a frenetic pace, just as it’s parent series. This episode decides to slow it down a little bit and take a breather. This isn’t a bad thing at all, in fact, it feels needed after what has transpired in this first half of the season.
We open with the police making their way to Chuck’s door. It turns out running into the street in a space blanket and taking your neighbor’s paper is liable to freak them out. Chuck, being the lawyer he is, tells them they need probable cause and they find it upon discovering the destroyed circuit breakers in the back of his house. Chuck tells them they can come in but the cops are ready to bust down the door and tazer the poor guy.
The episode’s slower pacing creeps in when we come back from the cold open and follow Jimmy as he visits a few of his potential clients. The first is a supposedly wealthy man who wishes to keep the government out of his hair by seceding and declaring his estate his own nation. The guy clearly doesn’t have much of a case but Jimmy is on board anyway, especially when the man offers him a million dollars. Sadly, it all proves too good to be true as the currency is from his “country.”
The next client has a great invention that he would like to patent, “Tony the Toilet Buddy,” unfortunately, the “Toilet Buddy” says some questionable things in the episode’s funniest scene. “Ooooh, your so big!” it says, “fill me up, Chandler!” Even Jimmy, as desperate as he is, isn’t quite ready for to go to those depths.
The last client almost halts the show completely, although this is clearly on purpose, as we and, by extension, Jimmy wait for her to make her way back to the living room with one of many figurines that she wishes to include in her will. There are strange requests included like a certain figurine only going to someone if they don’t remarry a person but Jimmy keeps track of it all and is rewarded for it with $140. Better than nothing, I suppose.
Jimmy recounts his day to Kim later and I’m really enjoying the dynamic the duo have, they clearly have a bit of a flame for each other but I’m still not entirely sure how much of a past they have and what has already happened between them. Their talk gets interrupted by news that Chuck is in the hospital.
The hospital scene takes up another chunk of the episode but it illuminates us on what exactly might be going on with Chuck. When Jimmy explains his brother’s condition to the doctor she tests out this possibility and seems to prove that this is all in his head. The doctor recommends committing him for some psych tests but Jimmy refuses, even if it would mean getting one over on Howard Hamlin.
We learn later, once Chuck is home, a little of what Jimmy believes might be the issue. “Whenever you think I’ve done something wrong, something questionable, you get worse.” Jimmy says illuminating what might actually be ailing his brother and why he took so strongly to the doctor’s “dirty trick” on his brother. The doctor, in a way, proved that Jimmy himself might be the cause of all this and that’s the last thing he wants.
Later, Jimmy takes a suggestions from Kim and decides to start focusing on elder law. His idea for advertising about it is kind of brilliant. He has jello cups passed around a nursing home with his new slogan printed on the bottom of them. “Need a will? Call McGill.”
Finally, we close on Mike, who gets a business card from Jimmy and lands himself in some potential trouble when police show up at this door. Judging by the interaction between them at the end this looks like something that went down back in Philly that’s followed Mike to Albuquerque. It’s a good thing he has the freshly printed business card of James McGill, he might need it.
The episode’s slower pacing gives us a chance to breathe and for the show to set up where it plans on going in the latter half of the season. While not as much happens as what we’re accustomed to in a Better Call Saul episode the character dynamics keep this episode strong. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess but I have a feeling the pace won’t stay slow for too long.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- Jimmy decides to get a suit similar to one from Matlock because if there’s one thing old people love, it’s Andy Griffith.
- I could see AMC optioning a Sex Toilet spinoff around 2020.
- Mike watches a woman this episode and I’m curious to see if anyone has some ideas on who it might be. I’m currently assuming it’s his daughter but I can’t remember if we’ve already seen her in Breaking Bad.
- “I hope you get rich! Chandler’s gonna need it for the therapy!”