re: (OT) Better Call Saul final season...April 18th

Ups and downs the fat man said. I am not convinced those cameras only have 72 hours of retention. I am not convinced the store manager won't notice all that shite out of place. But the story definitely sets up a lot of tension. I love it.

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Also the fat man's horking... hork hork hork..

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Good call. The whole scam was based off Gene timing out and calculating the average span of a hork-down session. Which is hilarious. But also pretty nauseating to watch that dude act and sound like he’s having sex while he horks out. An obvious call-back to make us think about Kim’s disgusting table manners. Just complete genius visual story telling here.

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I am not convinced those cameras only have 72 hours of retention. I am not convinced the store manager won't notice all that shite out of place

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I agree with this as well. The whole theme of the story is about the consequences of Jimmy’s scams. How innocent people in his orbit always end up getting hurt whenever he puts his pinky ring on and gets to work.

I think this is Carol Burnett’s real role. She’ll be the innocent one that gets hurt when her only son gets locked up in jail over this and shes left to live out her final few years alone with no family to care for her. As sad and lonely as the guy in the speech that Gene gave as a diversion to obese mall cop fellow.

Yep. It was all fun and games again for Gene. He was having so much fun he started arranging Saul suits on the rack and a co-worker had to remind him to take his lunch break. But then someone always gets hurt. Poor Marion. Bless her heart

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What are the chances this all ends with Jimmy waking up back in Cicero and it was all just a dream?

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Like the Wizard of Oz? That one started off and ended in black and white as well. The only time it was in color was in the land of Oz

Jimmy wakes up in the last scene of the series in bed having woken up from a coma after slipping and getting knocked out while trying to do a chicago sunroof. Chuck, Howard, Kim, Walt, Jessie, and Mike are all at his bedside when he wakes up telling him how worried sick they were about him. Then Nippy trots in, jumps on the bed and starts licking Jimmy’s face and they all laugh and make plans to go hork something since Jimmy hasnt eaten in days while he was in a coma. Fade to black. The End. Roll credits

Posted my initial quick thoughts on the other board but will paraphrase ere:



-Finally, at long last, after 6 seasons, we get an extended look at Gene. Isn't this what we all wanted, and now we're complaining? Seasons 1-5 we got a brief snippet of gene at the beginning of a season then nothing else. We didn't even start season 6 with gene. Now we get a complete Gene episode. I was pumped!
-The intro!!! Saul's worn out VHS of his commercials has faded more and more with each new season introduction as he keeps wearing it out. And now he's finally watched it so much that it bit the dust. Was not expecting that.
-We get another classic BCS grift. They've sure pulled some great ones over this series and this was another. When saul was walking paces in the mall then the scene instantly cut to him walking those same steps in the field for the store setup it caught my breath for a second ha. Awesome transition scene there.
-the pump fake with the floor cleaner. When manager sees the scuff and asks him to fix I thought surely that was going to break the nightly routine and he'd be in the store while dude is robbing it. Only to fake us out by having him slip instead. That one got me.
-And finally, the loose ends. People are saying "there's only 3 episodes left, I don't know why they put this episode here" but as mentioned it's wrapped up an outstanding issue. Currently we have:

-Gus's bcs arc is done
-lalo/the salamancas/ mike are both done with bcs
-the lab story is done
-Howard, and actually the entire HHM company itself, is wrapped up
-the only guy thus far that has identified gene in omaha as his true self has now been dealt with and that story is complete

There really isn't A TON that's left to be tied up, and damn sure not so much that can't be done in 3 episodes. This episode gave us a heavy helping of gene, it tied up an important loose end, and gave us another great heist to boot.

And Jefferson, do you have any insight on Line Festival 2010 that we saw out in the field with the fake mall setup? Surely the lines are telling us something.

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And Jefferson, do you have any insight on Line Festival 2010 that we saw out in the field with the fake mall setup? Surely the lines are telling us something.

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Yeah, I do. And, yes they are.

Remember, the Lines are just visual metaphors for the trajectories of the main characters in this unbelievably layered and meticulous show. What are trajectories? Well, for instance, when you shoot an arrow at a target 30 yards away, there are outside forces acting on the “trajectory” of the arrow, right? Forces like gravity, wind, temperature, air density, etc. All of which determine where the arrow will land. You don’t just aim from point A and hit point B in a straight line. It gets put there by many variables

And this is the entire theme of the BCS prequel in a nutshell—> What and who made Jimmy McGill into Saul/Gene? —> What made a by-the-book Philly cop into an underworld cleaner/enforcer/thug? —> What turned Kim from whatever she was to whatever she is now at drop of a hat? —>etc etc

Outside forces

And it has played out over and over through 6 seasons of this prequel. The job of the writers being to try to link the lines of the prequel believably to the post-quel. And like John madden drawing lines on the screen with a yellow telesrrator the BCS writers have also been doing basically the same thing with their own not-subtle-whatsoever lines

Let me give one quick example. Did you notice how as the seemingly unrelated characters of Howard and Kim/Jim and Lalo neared the point where their trajectories all collided, that the Lines everywhere all suddenly crossed each other at 90 degree angles? I’m talking everything right down to their clothes. Which went from vertical or horizontal stripes parallel to each other to Lines crossing each other in 90 degree angles

Dammit. Hang on

So…..The trajectories all crossed each other with horrifying results

And then here we are now in the sequel. The post BB Gene timeline where the trajectories no longer have to hit a BB target. And what do we see in the first real actual glimpse into this new realm? We see Gene literally stringing Lines together in basically a rat maze , and coercing some poor sap to follow his makeshift constructed trajectories he has for them. With no seeming consideration whatsoever to 1) the reason he’s in Omaha to begin with and 2) the outside forces that have always destroyed every single straight line he’s ever tried to draw.

I guess long story short, the outside forces are coming. They’re coming to adjust Jimmy’s trajectory to where it has been destined from day one.

Just like in the next episode preview, he’s at a crossroads. With four options for which way to go. But we already know the one he’ll pick. Like Chuck said “He can’t help himself.”

I have thought more about his distraction monologue during the heist. I think he really actually enjoyed shitting around with the security guards and becoming a fan of a sports team he never gave a shite about. He truly is lonely. His high school BFF is dead. His wife is gone. His whole family is dead (brother,mother, father). He has no friends. He has no girl. Hell, he can't. He's on the lam. He's constantly in a state of paranoia. He actually did have a panic attack and was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he almost got busted again. He's already trapped in a prison he made for himself. So the monologue was all truth, not bullshite. Perhaps he wants to be caught, deep down inside. Or he had to pull off some kind of scam because he "just can't help himself" triggered by his loneliness and paranoia. Or, the idea for the scam all came about because that guy made him and he needed to pull him down into the muck to end any chance the guy would turn him in... thus stalking mother carol. I forgot what point I was trying to make.... it'll come back to me in a minute.

What was the timeline of breaking bad? And where are we now with this heist?

So Saul vaccumes out during BB timeline and not after?

Or maybe Carol Burnett isn’t exactly a lurking pro. Maybe she’s just an aging unhappy person with some sort of talent from her past. Just like Walt was when he got into the game. And an opportunity (Saul reward cash) is about to present itself, that she grabs

That makes even more sense symmetrically.

And Jeffy is a dead ringer for Jessie symmetry. The mostly hapless loser with a troubled past, that gets swept up in something larger as underling

Man, it sure is crazy how symmetrical the contents of boxes on Jeffy’s sweater are . Not obvious at all. Probably a total coincidence. Yeah, right