By JASON MARTIN (@JMartZone – September 17, 2018)
The opening sequence of tonight’s episode was the very epitome of a LITERAL “cold” open. It ended with two people increasingly on different paths, taking different roads, and growing apart. This season for Jimmy McGill has been about deciding to take the low road, rather than simply biding his time and waiting for the chance to get his law license back and start anew. He was so close to handling it well, but in the aftermath of his brother’s death, he’s gone the route we knew he would.
If she’s perfectly honest about it, Kim Wexler likely knew the same. She loves him and he loves her, but she also realizes his faults, has seen them for herself, but has also observed his redeeming qualities, his charm, and his decency.
By the end of “Something Stupid,” many of those redeeming segments of Jimmy McGill had receded into the background as the dirtbag portions of Saul Goodman emerged. We are building to the end of Jim and Kim, and it’s going to be this Huell Babineaux case that is going to set it into motion, if not break it in half. The end of the episode was illuminating, because although we’re not sure what Kim is up to, we know she’s desperate to stop her boyfriend from something underhanded that could backfire on him or get him hurt, incarcerated, or worse.
What it may lead to is Kim being disbarred. That’s the first thing that ran through my head as “Something Stupid” closed. While Huell did something stupid, Jimmy continues to do something stupid, Kai says something stupid, it’s Kim that has to be the smart one, right? Or does she? She may well be the one thing Jimmy breaks that he doesn’t mean to break. Can you imagine what would happen to his mind if he were to cost her everything as she gave it up trying to save him or his pickpocket henchman?
When the prosecutor asks her why she would care about a case like this where the only witness is a “scumbag, disbarred lawyer who peddles drop phones to criminals,” Kim is hurt by it, because she knows another side of Jimmy McGill. Increasingly, that side is fading away. It’s the reverse of the end of the cold open, where her side of the screen fades to black and his stays lit. We are seeing the end of the very last personal relationship of this man’s life, and he’s pushing it out the door with every move he makes.
The Kim-Jimmy dynamic was so well-written by Alison Tatlock, with phenomenal split-screen directorial work from Deborah Chow, not to mention the rest of her visual choices. I found myself so interested in that angle that I struggled to care much about the superlab construction delay and near melee, or even Gus attempting to stymie Hector’s progress after seeing him intentionally knock over his water to catch a glimpse of the nurse’s body bending to pick it up. There, he realized Salamanca was closer to “back” than the doctor knew, and he doesn’t want that. Remember the story from last week? He wants to “keep” Hector for a while.
Jimmy semi-embarrassed Kim at the firm function, mainly because he kept upping the money ante on the possible ski trip and Rich was left to stay quiet, knowing McGill was just trying to make him either commit to spending a ton or look bad in front of the other employees. “That was something,” was Kim’s response in the car, before Jimmy said one word and turned on the music. The episode was designed to show these two people beginning to co-create a wall together, but not one around them…
…one between them.
Lavell Crawford is usually good for a laugh as Huell, and this week was no exception, when he basically tells Jimmy the potential law office is a craphole. “If I was a lawyer? Nope. Big glass high-rise. 40th floor…when I’m not on my boat.” Tremendous. Then later, he assaulted a plain-clothes cop with a bag of sandwiches. Perfect. We’ll be seeing him throughout the rest of this series, because we know he’s with us DEEP into Breaking Bad. That’s a good thing. It’s pure entertainment. He also compared himself to D.B. Cooper, which was another gem.
Remember what McGill told him in the justice center lobby. “Sooner or later, it will catch up to you.” It’s another moment of foreshadowing with a total lack of self-awareness for Jimmy, who is currently reselling burner phones to the worst of society on the street. He’s doing it for money, and he doesn’t care who it hurts or what trouble it causes law enforcement. While there have been times where he has been helpful to others or willing to sacrifice for someone else, what we’re now seeing is a much more selfish, much more jaded, much more temptation-addled Jimmy McGill.
He’s on that drive to Omaha, slowly but surely.
Three episodes remain this season, and by the finale, I’m expecting Kim to be in legal trouble and the relationship with Jimmy to perhaps have cracked for good. There’s also this possibility of Rich trying to actually start something with her, although I don’t sense it yet. Dennis Boutsikaris usually plays a character of that type, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him make a move on the retreat, if it happens. The superlab will probably be finished, or close to it, and we’ll be building to Hector getting his bell and Gus trying to keep him down.
Two excellent song choices tonight with a take on Frank Sinatra’s “Something Stupid” in the open and Burl Ives’ “Big Rock Candy Mountain” as we visited the superlab. Both were completely appropriate for their respective scenes. Here are a few of the lyrics from the former, which show just how bad this Kim-Jimmy thing is going to end up…
I know I stand in line
Until you think you have the time
To spend an evening with me
And if we go someplace to dance
I know that there’s a chance
You won’t be leaving with me
A decent amount of time passed during this episode, as we got to the end of 2004 and saw multiple holidays come and go. I’m curious how much more will elapse over the rest of the season, and just how miserable Kim Wexler is once Season 4 closes in October.
I’m @JMartZone. In German, it means “World Class Strength.” Yeah…I guess.
