During the run of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, one thing I’ve really come to appreciate is the shows’ cold opens, introducing some mysterious object or event that only reveals its meaning as we go through the episode. I also appreciate both shows’ attention to craft and the painstaking efforts the characters take to make something useful or beautiful.
All of that came together in this week’s cold open. We see a lovingly rendered depiction of the intricacies of everything that goes into sealing a slide rule in Lucite and engraving that with “With Love, the Boys” in German as a memento. This, of course, belonged to Werner Ziegler, the superlab engineer whom Mike had to kill after he contacted his family against the rules.
There’s a lot of poignancy in that slide rule—it’s a monument to Werner’s real accomplishments in life and it took a lot to make that memento, but his life was ultimately fragile and now even the memento of that life is gone, stolen by Lalo in an attempt to prove that Gus is working against the cartel. Luckily, Werner’s widow, Margarethe, escapes with her life after unexpectedly coming home while Lalo is searching her home. (Also, I know Margarethe is still grieving, but can you imagine the sheer willpower it would take someone not to sleep with Lalo? Damn.)
Anyway, most of this episode seemed to be table-setting for the end. Cliff confronts Howard (maybe after his jittery leg and animated speech to the Sandpiper people further convinced him he was on drugs) and Howard immediately figures out he has a “Jimmy McGill” problem. They settle this in the boxing ring, but of course none of this is over.
Jimmy and Kim must have wanted to get caught, which was why their scheme seemed so ridiculous and inelegant. The lunch with Kim now seems like an obvious setup (though Howard apparently has yet to realize Kim is the ringleader on this one). Plus, Howard’s therapist could easily confirm his alibi that he was in a session during the one-act play with Wendy on the street. There must be another level to all of this.
Why doesn’t Kim tell Jimmy that Lalo is still alive? Does she want him not to get distracted from the Sandpiper scheme, or does she withhold the information because she believes, as Mike said, she’s made of “sterner stuff” and that Jimmy couldn’t handle it? Kim is indeed solid, but still wakes up paranoid in the middle of the night, bracing a chair against the doorknob in case Lalo comes back.
Jimmy also has his new practice to worry about, with Albuquerque’s finest lining up outside his office for legal representation. Francesca makes her first appearance as Jimmy’s secretary. She may not seem it on the surface, but when she got double pay out of Jimmy, it was an amusing reminder that this woman is a total hustler, just like her boss.
Gus is paranoid, too. That scene at Los Pollos Hermanos was a concise little character study and a representation of where he is right now—he’s meticulous enough to straighten the row of employee visors on their pegs, but he’s paranoid enough about Lalo’s return that he gets distracted during taking the customer’s order and the sound of the crashing trays. He plants a weapon in the superlab, in case it all comes down to needing that.
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