Black and Blue

There’s a surreal quality to “Black and Blue” that sets it apart from other Better Call Saul episodes. The trophy-construction montage’s abstract beauty is reminiscent of a nature documentary. For the last quarter of the episode, we’re transported to a romantically lit bar in Germany, such a stark departure from Albuquerque that it feels almost like a dream. And I truly didn’t believe the giddy-making boxing match between Jimmy and Howard was something that could happen in this universe, all the way up until Jimmy’s pause of reconsideration on his way out.

The tactical one-upmanship in this episode showed me how much I’ve been underestimating all the characters on Better Call Saul. Up until this week, I would have been perfectly content if the fruit of Jimmy and Kim’s labor was Howard taking the fall for a false cocaine addictionmostly because of how joyful each of their sub-schemes have been to watch. Only when Cliff confronts Howard did it occur to me how simple it would be to trace all of this back to Jimmy. And just as I thought Howard might be one step ahead of them, Kim’s unfazed reaction after the boxing match reminded me that, of course, this must have been part of the plan all along. If that plan involves luring Howard into taking action against Jimmy, it might be even more intricate than I imagined.

Now Howard has a private investigator checking up on Jimmy. But as Kim found out last week (and has yet to share), Mike has men watching him as well. My first instinct was to think that the safety net of Mike’s surveillance would merely render Howard’s investigation ineffective. More ominously – if it’s Howard’s PI who discovers Gus’s men – is it possible that Howard is about to unwittingly involve himself in the actual Albuquerque drug underworld, by happening upon the operations of a man who we know will go to extreme lengths to keep his criminal identity hiddenI’m stretching, in the same vein as my speculation from last week, because it would be a lot of fun to see Gus’s world cross over into Jimmy’s (despite it being preordained that Jimmy never meets Gus). Based on Kim’s absence in Breaking Bad, it’s a safe bet that something goes wrong with Jimmy and Kim’s scheme; Gus is a way it could go really wrong.?

Kim’s meeting with Viola had the opposite effect on me as her previous lunch with Cliff. Last week, we were aware it was all a setup beforehand, so I found it sweet when her pitch resonates with Cliff. This episode presents the warm reunion between coworkers first, entirely plausiblyMaybe Kim wants to recruit Viola for her pro bono work.. As a result, it’s a bit of a gut punch when Kim callously reveals in conversation with Jimmy that she was only using Viola’s admiration of her to learn the name of the Sandpiper judge.

I’m disappointed that I didn’t clue into where this episode was going when the German engravingIn Liebe …Deine Jungs: With Love …Your Boys was displayed. A visit to Voelker’s (the trophy shop), will presumably lead straight to Werner’s men. Perhaps troublesome Kai will be the weak link; when we last saw him leaving New Mexico, he was all too eager to disaffiliate himself from his boss in the interest of self-preservation.