Better Call Saul season 3 episode 2 review: On the level
In watching Monday’s episode “Witness,” we started to get some answers. Most notably, we also had the official arrival of Gus Fring as Mike convinced Jimmy to sit in at Los Pollos Hermanos and keep track of what was going on with one of the guys he was following. While there, it was a humorous moment with a trash can that led to him meeting Gus for the first time. He was kind, helpful, and courteous. Specifically, he was what you would want from a guy running a fast food fried-chicken empire.
Presumably, this is a Gus already ankle-deep in some illegal activities. The rest of the season should be an opportunity to pay some of these stories off.
What else we will say is that Mike needed the addition of Gus at this point to round out his journey. As enjoyable as it may be seeing him take apart the car last week, the plodding was starting to be a bit much. There is being slow, and then there is a crawl … a SLOW crawl.
By the end of the episode, Mike was inching closer to understanding the focal point of the operation. Let’s hope there is further convergence with Jimmy along the way.
Meanwhile, it all falls apart for Jimmy
In some ways, things are starting to turn around for our resident ace attorney. He and Kim Wexler hired Francesca, the woman who is his receptionist all the way into the Breaking Bad days — thanks to Jimmy’s advice, Cracker Barrel got the first positive publicity they’ve had since Brad’s Wife. He was getting plenty of new clients thanks to his commercial, and he and Kim were seeing some prosperity.
Unfortunately, then came Chuck. Ernesto warned Kim about the tape, and in turn, Kim warned Jimmy. This sent him into a rage, where he tore over to Chuck’s house, found the tape in front of him, and then destroyed it. Unfortunately, Jimmy didn’t realize that Howard was in the other room and could easily be a witness for everything that happened. Jimmy’s now more screwed than he’s ever been, and it’s easy to understand why he would turn at this point. Chuck created Saul just as much as Jimmy did. His actions broke his brother, and his lack of compassion very much desecrated his soul. The scene between Michael McKean and Bob Odenkirk tonight was fantastic, and the tension there is coming to a boil after spending most of the first week at a simmer.
Better Call Saul at times is a show with a pacing problem, but tonight, everything started to come together. We can see now Breaking Bad far in the horizon, and the journey charting the path from A to B is there. More than that, the show is just as entertaining as always. Grade: A-.
What did you think about tonight’s Better Call Saul episode? Sound off with your thoughts below!
(Photo: AMC.)