Wine and Roses

Just as I was gearing up for our regular check-in with Gene Takavic, Better Call Saul disorients us in full color with a deluge of ties and a tour of Saul Goodman’s eclectic brand of ostentation. The scattered mementos take us on a nostalgia trip through Jimmy’s past enterprisesbeanie babies for the court clerk, a bag of bingo balls, Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar, foam balls courtesy of CC Mobile, the Mesa Verde logo photograph. But when the Zafiro Añejo stopper falls to the sidewalk, the inescapable sadness of the opening is laced with dread, as the show’s final season begins in earnest with the agonizing question: what happens to Kim Wexler?

The episode quickly resolves any doubts as to whether Kim is serious about her willingness to play fast and loose with the law for her own gain. In previous seasons, we’ve seen her pull off cons in collaboration with Jimmy, putting a sympathetic touch on his more destructive instinctsthe beatification of Huell, her strategy to manufacture Jimmy’s grief for Chuck as a display to the New Mexico Bar. Thus far, most of her performances have been reactiveher unwilling assist to Jimmy’s scorched earth reinterpretation of her play with Mesa Verde, her showdown with Lalo.

So it’s all the more terrifying to see the bright, relentless, and calculated Kim – not Giselle – prepared to lay out her carefully considered takedown of Howard. “There has to be a reason for everything.” In “Something Unforgivable”, it’s all playful banter, but now it’s crossed over into the real world, and her determination is chilling. It’s striking, too, how quickly Kim and Jimmy’s roles have reversed. This time, Kim is the one rallying Jimmy to action by feeding into the mythology of Saul Goodmanwith suggestions for his “cathedral of justice” and hints towards the upgrade to the Cadillac DeVille seen in the opener.

Jimmy and Kim’s complementary approaches remind me why it’s such a thrill to watch the two of them work as a team. While Kim designs the play and ensures things go according to planmini-binoculars pressed to her face, gnashing at a stick of gum, it’s Jimmy’s improvisational flair that allows him to overcome the complications introduced by a surprise run-in with Kevin Wachtell of Mesa Verde. Jimmy’s schemes strike him in the moment like a inspiration from a muse, and we’re reminded here that he does all of this for his own satisfaction as much as anything else. Why settle with finding a way into the men’s locker room when, with an additional touch of showmanship, he can goad Kevin into making a scene in front of an audience of his peers?

Part of me hopes Jimmy’s slip of Lalo’s name to the DA won’t amount to anything, since it’s less satisfying when the plot is propelled by a careless mistake, especially coming from such a proficient storyteller. At the same time, he has plenty of license not to be at the top of his game. It’s easy to forget that although it’s been nearly two years for us, Jimmy has had less than a week to process his traumatic ordeal in the desert. It would be exciting, however, to see him face dual pressure from the state prosecutors in addition to the Salamancas, all while trying to quietly conduct his con with Kim.

The episode ends with one of the more satisfying nods to Breaking Bad in Lalo’s alphabet-board-esque strategy to coax out advice from Hector. The show continually finds refreshing ways to build tension, this time by interspersing Lalo’s recitations of the Spanish alphabet with a lovely wide shot of Casa Tranquila and the shadow of Hector’s wheelchair and twitching finger. It’s remarkable how exciting it was to hear the slightly muted ding of Hector’s bell through Lalo’s cell phone. All the while, my mind was racing to anticipate Hector’s next move. I still haven’t figured out what “proof” is waiting for Lalo back in Mexico.