Better Call Saul -

[murgatroid]

I have a question about the Season 5 finale.

Spoiler

When Lalo pulls off the the facemask of one of the assassins it looks like it's sticky and painful being pulled off. Can someone explain what that was? I've tried reading some episode re-caps but none of them mention it.

Spoiler: a minor detail in the finale i really liked

There's a really minor thing they do with the audio at the end of the episode I really liked. As Lalo walks away from his compound with anger in his face you hear his steps on the gravel and they quickly start to sound deep and muffled. I thought it represented Lalo's deep emotion in his head, being submerged/consumed by his anger in that moment and possibly also the temporary deafness from the firefight that had gone on.

Lalo is a deranged psycho, but I can't help but root for him.

 

[Gangster Talk]

Spoiler

When Lalo pulls off the the facemask of one of the assassins it looks like it's sticky and painful being pulled off. Can someone explain what that was? I've tried reading some episode re-caps but none of them mention it.

Spoiler

That was the dude that got a pan of boiling oil in the face

 

[Bender]

I have a question about the Season 5 finale.

Spoiler

When Lalo pulls off the the facemask of one of the assassins it looks like it's sticky and painful being pulled off. Can someone explain what that was? I've tried reading some episode re-caps but none of them mention it.

Spoiler

Wasn't that the dude who had a pan full of oil thrown in his face?

Beaten to it by a second.

 

[Clem Fandango]

I'm getting in my prediction now that there will be a "Gliding All Over" type montage of Saul finally being a full on criminal lawyer (perhaps after Kim is dead / leaves). In other words, this show will never be what I thought it would be - Jimmy doing his Breaking Bad schtick before meeting Walt. And I'm really glad about that. There's a weird parallel to Breaking Bad where you're watching the protagonist overcome obstacle after obstacle trying to get to a 'steady state' where they finally get to where they want to be.

 

[AnOminous]

Said Gould, “If I were going to tease something I would say keep your eye on the stopper. Remember, there’s a stopper? Jimmy and Kim open a bottle of Zafiro Añejo and that stopper, we’re not finished with that stopper. I will say that.”

What did he mean?

 

[AnOminous]

Spoiler

The stopper also made its appearance in Season 4 Episode 10 as well in Breaking Bad when the tequila was poisoned and killed the cartel leadership. I guess it could be referenced to prank someone but it could mean it will be used to kill someone.

I'm wondering which because the item has such grim connotations in BB.

And all of Vince Gilligan's works seem to be Chekhov's Gun the TV show.

 

[Bender]

I'm wondering which because the item has such grim connotations in BB.

And all of Vince Gilligan's works seem to be Chekhov's Gun the TV show.

It has grim connotations in BCS, too. It's a corrupting influence on Kim, she had it in her desk when she came up with the Mesa Verde plan with Saul, she took it with her when she left and gave Lalo a verbal beatdown. I have a theory on what it means to her but I'm too dumb to put it into words, lol.

I think I read somewhere that Gould was either the showrunner or main writer for the last couple of series, taking over Vince's position.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

Finally got caught up on the season.

I can't even begin to describe how much I love this show. Season 5 is the best one yet, in my opinion ... And episode 8 may very well be my favorite episode of the entire series so far.

 

[GenitalFetishist]

Also catching up on the season. I love this show.

 

[anti SJW]

I think Kim is still alive. Because:

Spoiler

In a late BB episode, Saul asks receptionist to call a number.We don't know who that is yet. Also, Kim is from Omaha, where "Gene" is working at the mall.

 

[KillThemCrackasBabies]

I think I read somewhere that Gould was either the showrunner or main writer for the last couple of series, taking over Vince's position.

Vince has often given Gould credit for being the primary creative force behind the show, and though he'll often trip over himself to dish out praise to the rest of the creative team I think BCS is far more of a Gould project than Vince's.

 

[frozenrunner]

I finally finished this season.

One of the things that make a great drama great is not just the creation of a compelling story with characters you care about but also the writers being perpetually aware of what the audience knows, when they know it and why, and what the audience is (probably) thinking at any given point.

That sounds absurdly obvious, I know. That's fundamental shit. You should always be thinking about those things while writing. But before Breaking Bad I had never seen a show where it was so clear the writing staff was consciously aware they needed to stay several steps ahead of an intelligent audience using all the tools at their disposable. And Better Call Saul continues in that vein.

A lesser show would tell a prequel story with a similar structure, maybe, with new characters. It might do a solid job and be enjoyable and even worthwhile. But Better Call Saul is clearly the product of people asking themselves all the right questions.

"What, in this show, is the central source of tension for/greatest unanswered question of the audience?" (The answer: "what happens to the new characters?")

From there, the events of every episode are structured with this in mind:

"How do we get the audience to care about these new characters?"

"What does this scene/plot point imply about the future of these characters?"

"How do we ramp up the tension as time goes on given that we know these events already took place?"

"If one of the characters were to actually die now, could the story (as we know it eventually plays out) feasibly and believably continue?"

Etc.

Aside from some Saul storyline-based lulls across seasons 2 and 3, this has been a hell of a ride. (Not as great as Breaking Bad, it should be admitted. But very close.) If only everyone writing for television was so conscious of and capable of utilizing storytelling fundamentals.

And I want to give special recognition to the character of Kim. They could easily have made her an innocent but naively trusting party to Jimmy's chicanery. A lesser show would have done that, setting her up to suffer because of his hubris. But instead they've given us an appropriately layered, complicated, and damaged person, a woman we could actually see being in a long-term relationship with Jimmy and who isn't being tricked into it. I believe that.

It has grim connotations in BCS, too. It's a corrupting influence on Kim, she had it in her desk when she came up with the Mesa Verde plan with Saul, she took it with her when she left and gave Lalo a verbal beatdown. I have a theory on what it means to her but I'm too dumb to put it into words, lol.

I have to disagree with that characterization. As the show continues, we're learning that Kim isn't a "straight-and-narrow" innocent who is being corrupted. She may not even be aware of it, but she's with Saul for a reason, and it's not because she mistakenly thought he was a boy Scout.

The dynamic is (somewhat) reminiscent of the one between Walt and Skyler. A lot of people see Breaking Bad and feel sorry for Walt's family because of the decisions he makes and the roads it leads them down. They're right to feel that way... but Skyler is not a fully innocent party like her children. She is with Walt, who has this dark side, for a reason, and it's not because she didn't know, on some level, that he had a dark side. That's a baked-in (though perhaps subconscious) part of their relationship dynamic.

My point is saying or implying that Kim is being corrupted is infantilizing her character. She's an adult who is making choices, and many of them aren't good ones, but she's not an agency-free victim. That's good writing.

 

[{o}P II]

Kim will kill Lalo.

 

[Jackisnotaname]

I think Kim is still alive. Because:

Spoiler

In a late BB episode, Saul asks receptionist to call a number.We don't know who that is yet. Also, Kim is from Omaha, where "Gene" is working at the mall.

Kim isn't from Omaha. She is from a very small town on the border of Nebraska and Kansas. I think she is alive because Saul has a Royals lunchbox in the flashforwards, which means he wants to think about her if she was gone for good he would force himself to forget her like he did with Chuck.

 

[UnKillShredDur]

I just hope that season 6 can keep up the same energy.

 

[{o}P II]

I'm wondering which because the item has such grim connotations in BB.

And all of Vince Gilligan's works seem to be Chekhov's Gun the TV show.

Someone reluctantly entering the world of crime to be with someone they love

With Skyler it was Walt jr (he would hate her unless she stayed with Walt) and with Kim it was Jimmy

 

[Lensherr]

Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould has explained how season 6 will change how we see Breaking Bad forever.

• Read more: ‘El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie’ review: pointless sequel adds nothing to one of the greatest TV shows of all time

“I think by the time you finish watching Better Call Saul, you’re going to see Breaking Bad in a very different light,” Gould explained to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I think we’re going to learn things about the characters in Breaking Bad that we didn’t know. We’re going to learn things about the events of Breaking Bad that we didn’t know.”

He continued: “We’re going to learn things about the fates of a lot of these characters that may surprise people or certainly throw them into a different light.”

The next batch of episodes, now confirmed to be the last of the Breaking Bad spin-off’s entire run, is set to start shooting in 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Gould explained that Sony TV was doing “everything humanly possible” for production to resume, when discussing potential delays.

Elsewhere, Bryan Cranston, who played Walter White in Breaking Bad, has said he would reprise his role if given the chance for the final season of Better Call Saul.

“I would be in [Better Call Saul] if Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, who are co-executive producers on it, wanted me to be in it,” he said. “I’d do it in a second. But it hasn’t happened yet, I can tell you, and we’ll see. I don’t know. There’s one more season to go and we’ll see what happens!”

Source:https://www.nme.com/news/tv/better-...see-breaking-bad-forever-says-creator-2734551

So I think it’s pretty obvious at this point we’re going to get the context behind Saul/Jimmy name dropping Lalo and Nacho in his first Breaking Bad experience, but I’m sure what he’s saying encompasses other things I’m not thinking about because this show has done such a good job of organically tying-in to its predecessor thus far (while still standing on its own two feet).

 

[NumberingYourState]

Season five had planted seeds in what could be Jimmy's "Dead Freight" moment to come. Shit is going to get unbelievably darker and bring us to grips with his worst half. One can only guess however the hell Kim phones it in.

 

[Just Here for A and H]

Did anyone else catch that, several times during season 5, when Kim was doing underhanded shit, the background OST was a variant of The Long Walk Alone from Breaking Bad? AKA Heisenberg's Theme. Here's a link to the track itself, maybe someone else noticed. If not, I'll rewatch the most recent season and make clips.

Anyway, if I'm correct and they did reuse The Long Walk Alone (which they definitely did since I'm an OST geek), it can only mean that Kim's going to break bad in her own way. And given the next season is the final one, this is really the only possible out for the character - her getting fedded for sus shit - besides killing her off (which is the obvious out but doesn't seem very "Vince".

EDIT: This scene features it towards the end, but it's apparent in other scenes around and after this point in the season.

 

[Demonslayer1776]

I feel like I need to do a rewatch of the first 5 season before season 6 comes out. While I remember things pretty decently, its all been spread out over so long that I feel like I'd get alot out of watching everything freshly again.