Better Call Saul season 3 episode 8 review: Jimmy’s desperation; Mike’s deal

Better Call Saul season 3 episode 8 was a story of many things on AMC Sunday night, but perhaps one of the biggest ones was the story of just how much Jimmy McGill wants to keep himself, or the idea of himself as a successful entrepreneur-of-sorts, intact. The admirable thing about this guy is that he’s a hustler, and will do anything and everything to ensure that he keeps hustling. Most of the time in life, it’s a good thing to have a little bit of hustle.

Unfortunately, Jimmy finds a way to muck it up by trying to swindle people out of money with his commercial airtime, and then causing a scene within their store. The commercial angle, suffice it to say, was not working all that well for him.

With that, Jimmy decided to get more into the threatening-to-sue business, using some of his contacts and his knowledge of law to screw over his construction boss. He came up with a crazy, compelling argument to get what he wanted — to rest on the job, and ensure that his co-worker, in exchange for some cash, was able to go visit his family. He did precisely what he promised Kim earlier in the episode: Somehow, he would find a way to ensure that he got her some money and paid his fair share.

Was this the trickiest we’ve seen Jimmy? Probably not, but this was him extremely effectively doing some of what he does best.

Chuck continues his recovery

For the first time, Chuck seems to be making a real effort to improve, realizing that he may have no other options. He’s started to see a doctor about it, and he even went to the grocery store on his own! Sure, the soy milk appeared to be his archenemy, but progress is progress and you have to take the positive steps when you can.

Here’s the problem: The malpractice insurance. The writers wasted little to no time paying this off, as Howard visiting him to clue him in about the malpractice insurance.

Nacho runs his plan

The story for Nacho over season 3 has been somewhat of a slow burn, mostly in that he’s been perceived most of the time as a #2 to one person or another. Yet, he is starting to become a little bit more proactive in his fighting back against Hector for the sake of keeping his father out of it. He’s like Walter White and Mike in a sense — he’s trying to protect his family, but in the process of that is caught up in some terrible stuff. He’s also in over his head and not all that great a liar. A great performance nonetheless from Michael Mando, who somehow managed to get himself all anxiety-ridden and sweaty at the same time while he did his delicate pill-swapping operation. This was MASTERFULLY shot, by the way.

Mike and Gus’ exchange

This was a fairly small scene for the two of them in the grand scheme of things, but there was a lot of ground covered as they found a way to come to a private agreement, which allows them to keep working together without Hector or his crew knowing about it.

Final verdict

Better Call Saul season 3 episode 8 was a fantastic showcase of just how slippery Slippin’ Jimmy can be, and how his actions could easily get some other people into hot water. He’s taking risks, and they could blow up in his face. There are still parts of this that need to be paced a little faster, but for now the show keeps its crown as one of the most entertaining cable entries out there. Grade: B+.

What’s coming next on Better Call Saul?

(Photo: AMC.)