Welcome to the TV Recap series Better Recall Saul that chronicles the adventures of Better Call Saul and a young criminal lawyer as he cuts his teeth down in ABQ (and his Breaking Bad buddies might stop by to wish him luck). Feel free to join every Tuesday as the adventures unravel and the story behind one of the funniest and sleaziest lawyers in TV history begins to take form and remind us why he is such a great character in the first place. Is this spin-off meant for greatness, or is it the worst idea that AMC has ever done? You'll have to read on to find out the truth.
Season 2, Episode 3: "Amarillo"
“You want next level pay, you’ve
got to do next level work.”
- Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk)
Plot:
The firm becomes suspicious when Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) suddenly gets a mysterious amount of new clients. When he's accused of soliciting, he turns to commercials in order to appease Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), which he believes will get him the elderly clients he seeks. Meanwhile, Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) is worried about his family following a series of gunshots heard late at night. He seeks to move them out and turns to Nacho (Michael Mando) for help. However, he wants Mike to take care of someone, of which isn't heard within the episode. Meanwhile, Jimmy's commercial is a success, but annoys his boss (Ed Begley Jr.) and demands to never to do it again - even though the experiment worked at the firm has gotten way more attention than it ever would. Jimmy's testing of success is bothering Kim, which leaves questions as to what will happen next.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
MVP:
Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk)
It isn't a terribly complicated episode in theory. Much like various points throughout Better Call Saul's first season, there's a certain gift to watching Bob Odenkirk play the character doing minutia activities. This is one of the episodes in which he manages to spin a yarn and reveal the necessity of inessential law firm ads on TV. He doesn't settle for mediocrity, and to watch him find a loophole into success provides yet another insight into how he is likely to evolve into Saul Goodman, even though one can assume that this is still a ways off. Still, the con artist side to him is starting to commit to the plan, and things are going to hopefully only get more interesting as the firm gets angrier and angrier at him.
Best Scene
For an episode lacking memorable scenes, there was a certain belief that things would get to the end without any conflict really arising. However, there came a little call from Jimmy's boss that causes him to start to feel panic. In a moment rich with symbolism, Jimmy arrogantly takes down his boss while a movie in which a submarine implodes plays in the background. Even if the show has thankfully avoided parallel metaphors like this, it is a perfect way to explain the impact of a rather crucial call in Jimmy's life. The question is what will happen next, especially as we know that Saul Goodman has to show up sometime, right?
Overall Thoughts
As I have said a few times, this episode was too much of a laid back episode for my liking - and generally why I don't find Better Call Saul as effective week to week as Breaking Bad. However, it's still fun to see how Jimmy manages to find his criminal lawyer persona. The minutia of making a commercial provides plenty of insight into how he works, and provides a perfect feud between him and the good thing that he has coming. However, it's the stinger at the end of the episode that inevitably will be talked about in the time until next week. Who does Nacho want Mike to kill? Since next week's episode is called "Gloves Off," many are speculating the return of Gustavo Fring (due to the "Face Off" episode name parallel). Or maybe it could be Jimmy? There's a lot of anticipation built up in that cliffhanger, and hopefully Better Call Saul lives up to its cliffhangers.
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