Plan and Execution

That was such an utterly insane thing to have happen.

Better Call Saul, in spite of its showiness and surprises, has played it straight with its twists for so long that even something as surreal as Howard’s execution feels thoroughly earned. This is the payoff for following Jimmy’s world and Mike/Gus’s world in parallel for six seasons: the fireworks when they collide in the most disastrous way.

In retrospect, it all falls into place so neatly. We have a villain who’s repeatedly shown that he’ll kill casually. Since “Bad Choice Road”, Lalo has known that Saul is a loose end. Lalo’s spur-of-the-moment course correction to draw Gus’s men away from Kim and Jimmy is supremely clever.

Howard’s death comes as such a monumental shock because of the layers of misdirection leading up to it. After the panic with the broken arm, I truly believed the danger in this episode was that Jimmy and Kim’s plan would fall apart. Once Cliff threatens to speak against Howard in front of the partners, I was certain he had already lost it all; the worst was over. Right up until Lalo appears, I could picture the rest of Jimmy’s storyline being about Howard’s retribution.

It’s especially tricky the way the cold open sets up the fated confrontation between Lalo and Gus. This season, we’ve seen long sequences of Gus walking into his bunker, Gus silently plotting in the underground lab. In the end, all of the attention on Gus distracted from that fact that he’s not one we needed to be worried about.

The close-up of the candle blowing when the apartment door opens first for Howard is a brilliant piece of foreshadowing. The sinking feeling upon Lalo’s arrival mounts quickly and precisely: Jimmy and Kim’s eyes to the second whoosh of the candle, the pure horror in their expressions, the shadowed figure in the background. There’s not a moment of doubt as to who it is, and in an instant, the destination the episode has been hurtling towards becomes distressingly clear.

The frisbee picture swap is among the best jokes this show has pulled off. The setup is meticulous, with all the focus on the hand-off photos over these last two episodes. It helps that the handlebar moustache looks absolutely ridiculous on the film student.

I adore the shot where the close-up of the cell phone turns to reveal Kim and Jimmy kissing on the couch, out of focus, over the mediation call. It’s very hot, and the sexual dynamic behind their love for the con continues to be fascinating.

What a performance by Patrick Fabian.