Breaking Bad: Better Call Saul
By fred | April 27, 2009
(S02E08) Sometimes you can loose faith in television, when you see some shows turning to crap, others being worse and yet getting a renewal all the while some brilliant series are let go or canceled after the network messed with it as much as they could. Luckily, though, every once in a while there’s hope. Every once in a while there’s a show that is simply brilliant, continues to deliver week after week and, because cable has such luxury, gets supported and renewed no problem.
Breaking Bad is one of those, one that makes me happy to watch TV. We continue to delve down inside the criminal lives of Walter & Jesse, and how the DEA slightly gets closer and closer to them, and every step we take, shall it be small or not, is just a delight. If the show is character driven, and loves to take its times and focus on those moments between chaos and explosions, sometimes things move, and fast.
This week we opened with one of those slow moments, another brilliant and hilarious one might I add, Badger getting busted because he’s not that smart in the end. Also, Hank having problems getting out of bed after the turtle incident, but Walter was here to help him and send him back after… him! And it got there, and then the plot moved forward quite a bit.
It was doomed to happen, especially with Walter pressuring to expand their territory and all the attention that blue meth has been getting, but that doesn’t mean – of course – that they were any prepared for it. With the involvement of the DEA, looking for that mysterious Heisenberg guy, they were obviously in a lot of trouble. Entered what might be the one who will help them grow, or bring them down, Saul Goodman.
Criminal lawyer he is, and unlike either Jesse or Walt he knows the business, all its dirty tricks, and is not afraid to use them. That’s why, when they came to him trying to get Badger out all the while refusing to take the deal and having him talk to the DEA, he had to simply ask: Why not just kill Badger?
And because he’s all in and he has killed before, Walter was more than seriously considering the option, he was asking Jesse, why not? Had it been up to kill, Walter would have signed up for this, even though he certainly has no clue of how you get it done (kill someone behind bars I mean). But Jesse hasn’t killed anyone, nor is he willing to kill his own friend!
Which probably led Saul to think of them as gifted, because you don’t get the DEA’s attention over nothing, but a couple of amateurs who have no clue what they are doing. Walt looked like a weak chemistry teacher, coughing a lot and not able to hide very well, one he suspects keeps his money under his bed (and he’s actually not that far off!), while Jesse was not very impressive either, refusing to kill anyone and having all his street creds based on what Saul knows to be something he has nothing to do with.
Saul could certainly help those two make things look a lot more professional, hide things better and be better protected and prepared for the times when police, or DEA, will get involved. He’s not seeing any threats in either of them, mistakenly thinking that they never killed anyone, while the ones of Crazy8 or Tuco aren’t alive because of them.
But the reason he could bring them down, isn’t that he’ll try to use them without realizing who he’s messing with, or what they’re willing to do, how far they’re ready to go to keep their shit up, it’s because Saul has connections with others in the business. I don’t speak Spanish myself, but when he thought they were others, on his knees, I’m pretty sure he used the word “cartel” while begging for his life, and I just don’t see that as a good sign at all.
The cartel is pissed, as we know from last week’s song, and they have Heisenberg dead already because he’s running things on their territory without a proper introduction, and even if Saul only gets Walt & Jesse to meet with the cartel, there is just no way this doesn’t end with another blood bath.
Meanwhile, things are working out pretty nicely between Jesse & Jane, and it looked like Skyler was finally getting closer and more “opened” (or friendly) to her husband now that there’s another man in his life, one she can probably talk to more easily and one that won’t lie all the time.
What did everybody else think?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Breaking Bad
