AMC’s Better Call Saul
6×04: “Hit and Run”
Directed by Rhea Seehorn
Written by Ann Cherkis

* For a recap & review of 6×03, click here.
* For a recap & review of 6×05, click here.
We begin with “Best Things in Life” by The Dreamliners as two people go on a bicycle ride together. They stop to look at a house being painted “fire engine red” or “tomato red,” lamenting the tacky look amongst an otherwise perfect suburbia. They get home and continue talking about the terribly-coloured house. Their home is actually a stakeout location, right across from a familiar home: 1213 Jefferson Street, the home of Gus Fring.

Howard is visiting his therapist, talking about his work and home lives. Work’s pretty great, but Howard’s marriage isn’t exactly going well. He and his wife aren’t seeing eye-to-eye as of late. He then mentions a dream. At the same time, Saul’s tanned up just like Howard, carrying his sketchy keypad and a pylon with him, and he’s right outside the therapist’s building. Saul confirms the keypad works then gets into the car, though he quickly places the pylon in Howard’s space to keep it. He drives to a motel where he begins sounding the horn. Moments later, Saul encounters a familiar face from Breaking Bad: Wendy the sex worker.
Meanwhile, Kim’s at a restaurant, anxiously awaiting Clifford’s arrival. They get chatting about business, and it eventually turns to personal things, too. Clifford mentions his son’s “drug problem” and his new “personal view of the legal system.” Everything he says is caught on Kim’s tape recorder, too. That’s when Saul flies around the corner right outside the restaurant, pushing Wendy out of the car, all of which Clifford witnesses. Oh, my.
When Saul gets back to the therapist’s building he’s stressed out to see someone moved his cone and they’re parked where Howard was originally, forcing him to park in the wrong, illegal spot. Saul’s first idea is to pull the Patients Only sign out of the ground and move it. He gets the job done barely moments before Howard comes back out and gets into the car. No one’s the wiser; at least not Howard. Back at the motel, Kim pays Wendy off for the help, as well as gives the latter her card for pro bono work that may come up in the future after seeing cops nearby.
Although when Kim leaves it’s as if the cops are following her for a minute…

At home, Kim and Saul celebrate. Though a little later Kim starts talking paranoia, wondering if those cops were actually following her. She wonders if Saul’s ever felt like he’s being followed. He doesn’t quite answer, coming back with a little quote that suggests they’re the bad guys, the crooks, and it momentarily gives Kim pause as if she wonders if they’re “wicked.” But Saul tries to assuage Kim’s guilty feelings, always pulling her deeper into his criminal grift.
The next day at the courts, Jimmy finds everyone a little colder than usual, from the security guys to Hannah the clerk and the typically friend lady at the service window. None of the lawyers want anything to do with Saul, either. That’s because the word about Saul and the cartel is out, now everybody knows he’s not just a “regular bottom feeder.” Nobody will even sit with him at lunch. Worse than high school.

Kim’s at a restaurant meeting with a guy named Abe when she, again, spots the suspicious car she believes is a cop. So she goes out to visibly take down the car’s license plate, then stops to have a chat with the men inside. She blatantly asks whether they’re following her. The men say nothing and don’t identify themselves. They drive off when she threatens to call the police. So, are they cops? The driver talks like a cop. Or, are they cartel?
Saul’s got meetings to take so he rushes back to the nail salon where he discovers trouble. The whole place is full of tough-looking Mexican dudes, and Spooge, who we’ve seen looking a lot worse in Breaking Bad. See, the word’s also gotten out around the criminal community: Saul is “Salamanca‘s guy” now. The business is booming.
Things are definitely getting worse for Saul and Kim. He’s working out of a nail salon, she’s doing business in a little out-of-the-way restaurant. Plus, Kim’s getting in deeper now. Before she leaves the restaurant she’s stopped by Mike; he’d like to have a chat. Mike says he has people watching Saul and Kim. He knows everything they’re up to. But what Mike is concerned with is Lalo, considering the man’s not dead. Mike’s just keeping an eye on everyone who might get contacted by Lalo. The big thing here is, Kim’s come fully into contact with Saul’s cartel business, from Lalo to Mike, and there’s really no turning back for her anymore.

At home, Gus takes off the friendly mask he wears all day for others, finally relaxing after all his pretending for the world. It’s a lonely house, just him in that big place. There’s something interesting about seeing Kim and Saul, both pulling for each other and scheming together in the midst of chaos, then seeing Gus, whose love was taken away from him long ago and who’s now basically come to a place in life/business where he realises he’s incapable of safely having a significant other. And really, that’s where Saul ends up in Breaking Bad and beyond, too. In a way, Gus and Saul are two sides of a coin. Of course, Gus is much further along in his criminal journey than Saul is at this point.
We see the depths of Gus’s home life, where he walks through cavernous hallways beneath his house until he gets to a secret passage leading to the house across the street—the surveillance house. My lord almighty. So much work. But it’s necessary, I suppose, particularly with Lalo alive and on the loose somewhere, seeking bloody revenge.

Later, Kim arrives at a mini mall where Saul takes her inside to see his hopeful new office, the place we all know so well from Breaking Bad. Saul’s being booted from the nail salon, so he needs a new home base for his practice, especially with an overflow of “paying clients.” Bittersweet for Kim, given Saul’s popularity is only predicated upon being a cartel lawyer. She says all the right things, or the things she believes Saul wants to hear. Because she’s invested in this whole thing; she has to be at this point. That doesn’t mean Kim’s paranoia will go away. Or her conscience.