Spoiler warning: do not read until you’ve seen the fifth episode of Better Call Saul on AMC/Netflix
“We are going to be America’s Vatican City”
Today’s lesson: advertising works! (Sort of.) After Jimmy’s stunt with the billboard hit the local news last week, he’s off to meet potential new clientsimpressed by a lawyer prepared to literally go out on a limb for people. First up, the very promising Ricky, the kind of guy with a huge ranch who is keen on freedom, self-sufficiency, ceding from the US government and declaring independence from the rest of the States. He is even happy to pay upfront in cash – half a mill now, half a mill once they’ve taken on the supreme court. Just one tiny problem: Ricky’s paying in his very own Ricky Dollars.
Next up, a move into patent law. Jimmy meets a dad with more modest (but just as deluded) ambitions. It’s a kind of one-man Dragons’ Den encounter as Jimmy tries to keep a straight face as he’s taken into a garage and shown … a toilet. Not just any toilet, but Tony the Toilet Buddy (patent pending). With the help of a voice chip wired to a motion sensor, he has invented a creepy gadget to help his kids with toilet training with some very off-colour encouragement. (“Yeah, put it in me!”)
After the “sex toilet”, Jimmy seems almost relieved to sort out a very complicated (and boring) will for a senior citizen who wants to bequeath a collection of mini Alpine Shepherd statues to her friends and relatives with a complicated string of “if/then” clauses.
Perhaps the real lesson for Jimmy is Caveat venditor – let the seller beware. If you’re advertising to the kind of schmucks who would be taken in by a fake rescue stunt, perhaps it’s time to rethink the campaign.
Need a will? Call McGill!
It’s nice how these smaller encounters are played for laughs, but also give us a sense of Jimmy’s personality. He may keep flipping between the type of law he says he wants to specialise in, but when Kim points out that “elder law” could work for him, he’s quick to play to his strengths, working out a more focused strategy – advertising on packs of Jello puddings in a senior citizen retirement home. Jimmy may be a cynical shark, but he’s also a natural with the retirees, studying Matlock on video for dress tips and working the room like a pro. (“Who’s the banker here? That’s the only one I want to talk to,” he jokes with a group playing Monopoly.)
‘Officer, let’s talk about something called probable cause’
Jimmy’s decision to hide the newspaper with his picture on the front page sets up this week’s major incident: Chuck being hospitalised. Two officers arrive to investigate why the older of the McGill brothers stole his neighbour’s paper, find him uncooperative, notice the stacks of camping gas canisters piled up, and force their way in. Despite Chuck’s ability to quote the detailed letter of the law to them, it doesn’t go well. But as Jimmy hears when he arrives at the hospital, the doctor isn’t convinced by Chuck’s self diagnosis of his “electromagnetic sensitivity” condition – she even switches on one of the machines in the room when Chuck’s not looking to prove that it’s a psychological, not physical condition. Good use of sound design to put us inside Chuck’s head in these scenes – he definitely believes it’s physical even if the doctor doesn’t.
‘Long way from home, ain’t cha?’
In some ways, it’s a placeholder episode this week, with less of the scams and action that we’ve seen so far, and more of a chance to watch Jimmy finding his feet, trying to do the right thing, establish himself in whatever way he can, look after Chuck, paint Kim’s toenails … After the first four instalments, it’s a welcome gear shift; we’ve got a sense of the rhythm of the show, the lie of the land, now it’s satisfying to take a tour around – and to set up the next chapter.
The “John Wilkes Booth” gag from Jimmy as he drives up to Mike’s parking booth – with a full sticker book – is our cue to spend a bit more time in Ehrmentraut country at last. Jimmy drives off, we stay with Mike. It’s a great coda: a time-lapse shot of an uneventful night in the booth, followed by the silent shift change as Mike walks past his daytime replacement. He eats breakfast alone in a diner, waits outside a suburban house in a sad/creepy stake-out, then heads home to a beer and some TV to wind down – and a knock on his front door.
So who are the cops waiting outside for him, and what do they want? When Jimmy handed Mike his new business card it felt like a good gag (the look on Mike’s face when the topic of “seniors” came up was priceless) – but if he’s in trouble with the law, could this be the moment Mike decides he better call?
Notes and queries
- “Gosh you’re big, you’re soooo big.” Is this the last we’ll see of Tony the Toilet Buddy (patent pending)?
- Whose house was Mike watching? Was that his daughter? And are we too far back in the Breaking Bad timeline for Mike’s granddaughter Kaylee to have been born yet?
- After working all night in the parking booth, Mike likes to unwind by watching screwball comedies – he’s watching Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in 1937’s The Awful Truth when the cops come knocking.
- “I pride myself on my moxie.” Jimmy also prides himself on his after-hours pedicure skills, although Kim doesn’t seem convinced. Do the salon owners know he’s moonlighting in their chairs?
- “You’re completely disgusting, you know that?” “Hey buddy – you’re the one with the sex toilet.” Not a putdown you hear every day.
