Things, as expected, get so much worse for Jimmy once he makes it out of the desert.
Better Call Saul 5×09: “Bad Choice Road”

Things, as expected, get so much worse for Jimmy once he makes it out of the desert.
Jimmy's big discount causes mess in the streets. Nacho has more trouble on his hands.
Kim and Jimmy begin to further divide, as he's getting closer and closer to his life as Saul Goodman.
Faced with life or death, Walt and Jesse must figure out a way to kill Gus.
Hank suspects Gus is involved in the drug trade, and Walt gets stuck in the middle of the two.
Hank makes a serious mistake that alters his personal & professional life, possibly beyond repair.
Gus Fring receives an unexpected visit from Don Hector at Los Pollos Hermanos. Later, he goes to see Mike Ehrmantraut.
Walt gets pepper sprayed. Later, he almost encounters worse as the Salamanca brothers make their way towards the home of Heisenberg.
AMC’s Breaking Bad
Season 2, Episode 2: “Grilled”
Directed by Charles Haid
Written by George Mastras
* For a review of the Season 2 premiere, “Seven Thirty-Seven” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Bit by a Dead Bee” – click here
Open on the car Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was driving at the end of the premiere. There are gun casings, shells laying everywhere. Glass. The hydraulics of the car are bouncing. Everything is desolate.
Cut to Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) explaining to the DEA office that Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) is the new head honcho of the meth business in the ABQ. He took over from Krazy-8. But also, they discovered the two dead men at the scrapyard are involved with Tuco. PLUS – a fingerprint belonging to the man himself. So, perfect timing? I think so. Now that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is along for a ride with Tuco, Jesse in tow. Perfect timing for the story. Terrible for Walt. Even further, Skyler (Anna Gunn) called Hank saying she hasn’t seen her husband since the night before; he left out of nowhere and never came back, still missing. A real situation is brewing for ole Walt. If he makes it out unscathed, how will he explain the disappearance? Cops are called. Hank is poking around. There are so many ways this entire thing could go wrong.
The key – Walt receiving a text on his phone before leaving. Skyler mentions it to the cop working on finding him. Remember, Walt has two cell phones. Will this come back to cause him grief, either personally or legally? It’s just the beginning.
In the desert, Tuco gets rid of all the cell phones around him, tossing them into the weeds. He has Walt and Jesse holed up a little cabin. Or, he does after letting them free of the trunk.
At the same time, Skyler is out putting up MISSING posters with Walt’s face on them. Nobody has any idea where he could’ve gone, least of all her. If only they knew it was all a result of cooking meth. Would his wife still be out there hoping to find him? Then there’s all the cash sitting in a box of diapers, just feet from Walt Jr (RJ Mitte) who prints of more posters with his father’s face on them, teary eyed.
Over in the small cabin in the desert, Tuco’s ill uncle Hecter ‘Tio’ Salamanca (Mark Margolis) sits in a wheelchair, only able to communicate with the ringing of a bell set at his fingertip. Tuco goes about intimidating Walt and Jesse more, looking through wallets, discovering more about the Heisenberg he supposedly knew. A sad juxtaposition: Walter’s wallet holds family pictures, identification cards and more, as Jesse only has a condom in his, sort of a statement of their two lives. Regardless, the worry for these two is real now that Tuco has them stashed away out there. The DEA is after Tuco, and he’s a little suspicious about his new business partners. He plans to take Walt and Jesse with him – across the border.
AMC’s Better Call Saul
Season 2, Episode 10: “Klick”
Directed by Vince Gilligan
Written by Gilligan & Heather Marion
* For a recap & review of the penultimate Season 2 episode, “Nailed” – click here
* For a recap & review of the Season 3 premiere, “Mabel” – click here
After Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) stood by as his older brother Chuck (Michael McKean) smashed his head off a counter in the previous episode, the Season 2 finale begins with the two brothers – a psych out has us feeling it’s Jimmy at his brother’s hospital bed. But it’s the Brothers McGill at the bedside of their mother. One thing I love is how the flashbacks are always in this blue-grey tone, so immediately I should’ve known this was a view back to their lives. Before all the mess, or well, before the biggest mess. The dying mother wakes a moment and calls for Jimmy, right before dying. Calling out for him, the mother wastes away, and he gone out for a sandwich. The disappointment is evident by the look on Chuck’s face. He hates his younger brother, for always taking the easy way out, for always giving up, so on. I feel bad for Chuck, at the same time I recognize Jimmy’s situation, as someone who isn’t deliberately malicious, until absolutely pushed to that point. He simply doesn’t think. When he gets back to the hospital, Jimmy finds Chuck, who refrains from telling his brother about their mother’s last words, calling out for him.
With this opening sequence, the writing and direction of Gilligan is already doing wonderful things.
Back to the end of “Nailed” – Jimmy races inside the copy shop to try and take charge of the situation. He gets Chuck’s head elevated slightly, though, the look in his brother’s is very spacey. In the hospital, he’s unable to protect himself from all the electronics beaming into him. You can almost feel the claustrophobia, as Gilligan uses a great rig shot to show him in this really up-close and personal perspective, which sort of cements us in a first-person point of view. A truly painful sequence to watch Chuck suffer underneath the lights and around all the electronic equipment. I’ve always felt he’s mostly crazy. Here, the acting, the writing, the direction makes this almost unbearable. Seriously. Not much affects me deeply, but Michael McKean had me wanting to cry, as Chuck pleads with them not to do a CAT scan. When the whole moment is over, I sighed a breath of relief.
But Jimmy doesn’t get such a chance to sigh. A doctor (Clea DuVall) explains to Jimmy there needs to be examinations done, however, Chuck is still refusing, obviously. The younger brother doesn’t want to commit the older one. Like anyone wouldn’t want to, either. Things for James McGill are about to get far more complicated than ever before. Because it’s been clear a long while, Chuck is not fit to be living without someone to help take care of him.
Worst of all, Chuck is sure of Jimmy’s treachery. To anyone else it sounds bonkers. To us, we know the truth. At the same time, man servant Ernesto says he called Jimmy, that’s why he showed up at the copy shop. Well, that pokes a hole in Chuck’s ideas. And he’s aware of what comes next. We’ll see how well that pans out, on all ends. As for Ernesto, he says he helped out because he likes Jimmy, and it seems as if Chuck has been out to get him. Yikes. Works for Jimmy.
AMC’s Better Call Saul
Season 2, Episode 9: “Nailed”
Directed & Written by Peter Gould
* For a review of the previous episode, “Fifi” – click here
* For a review of the Season 2 finale, “Klick” – click here
The penultimate Season 2 episode of Better Call Saul begins with a truck headed in the direction of El Paso. The man inside rocks to a bit of music; is he the same one from “Fifi”, who at the beginning stopped off for the gun in the box?
Ahead, a man is preparing something nasty. It’s Mike (Jonathan Banks). He’s put the truck out of commission with his nail-spiked garden hose. Now, he has the upper hand. What I love most about Mike is that he’s actually a smart criminal. Sure, not everyone can have their bases covered all the time. But Mike has an impressively criminal mind, one which works both ways and usually helps him cover his tracks, or think of every angle possible in a situation. Goes to show that some people develop cop-like skills that are put to use elsewhere other than law enforcement. Mike Ehrmantraut is one of those types of people.
AMC’s Better Call Saul
Season 1, Episode 8: “Fifi”
Directed by Larysa Kondracki
Written by Thomas Schnauz
* For a review of the previous episode, “Inflatable” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Nailed” – click here
This episode starts with some Mexican food trucks heading across the border. One of them is taken aside to be searched. The whole process is incredibly detailed, thoroughly every aspect of the truck is checked, rechecked, examined under close scrutiny. Meanwhile, the driver stands waiting for clearance. Afterwards he drives on towards his destination, which is a little more unorthodox than the strict, ordered procedure he’d just watched happen. We’re also very aware this is not the first time this man’s gone through the whole mess.