The second episode of Better Call Saul found the lawyer digging himself out of the trouble he started while unintentionally setting up a major new arc.
Tonight’s episode, titled “Mijo,” was another stellar hour of drama and chuckles thanks to lead actor Bob Odenkirk (Jimmy) and supporting stars Michael McKean (Chuck) and Raymond Cruz (Tuco). “Mijo” was directed by Michelle MacLaren, who directed several episodes of Breaking Bad and will helm Wonder Woman for Warner Bros.
Better Call Saul episode 2 begins by jumping backward a bit from where the show ended Sunday night. The two skateboarding brothers are inside the hit and run driver’s home when they meet her grandson Tuco (Breaking Bad viewers will remember Tuco from his days distributing meth for Walt and Jesse beginning in season 1). After sending his adorable grandmother upstairs so she can watch her soap opera and avoid seeing the drama unfold, Tuco quiets the “ailing” brothers with grandma’s walker delivered forcefully into their faces. He’s particularly pissed off about the fact that these guys called his grandmother a “biznatch.”
Tuco begins cleaning the boys’ blood off his carpet (“Use club soda!” grandma recommends) when Jimmy comes knocking. Tuco pulls him inside with a gun pointed to his face and asks he start explaining this whole situation. After being interrupted yet again by grandma, Jimmy begs for him and his “clients” to be freed. It’s classic Saul in this scene as he compliments the home and sucks up to Tuco in hopes of not being shot point blank. “Wow, you’ve got a mouth on you,” the drug kingpin tells him.
Tuco takes him to the garage where we see the brothers are still alive (Jimmy’s glass-half-full thinking came true). Unfortunately, when Jimmy is ordered by “Mijo” to untie them, the brothers throw their lawyer under the bus.
In the next scene we’re led to familiar territory for Breaking Bad fans: The beautiful Albuquerque desert. Ah, we’re home! Tuco and his associates, including new recurring character Nacho, demand answers from Jimmy and the boys about why they ended up at Tuco and Grandma’s home. Jimmy truthfully explains that they were trying to run a scam, but his kids hit the wrong car. Tuco’s still not buying the story and assumes he’s working for the government. Out of options and with a finger on the line, Jimmy makes up a story that he’s from the DEA and busting Tuco for drugs. That’s when Nacho steps in and calmly gets the truth out of Jimmy.
Despite being reassured by Nacho that these guys meant no harm to them, Tuco wants the boys to pay for messing with his grandmother. Jimmy is let go unscathed, but he can’t face the idea of the skateboarders dying on his watch. So, he barters with Tuco until he talks him down from skinning them alive to only breaking one leg per boy. “That’s tough, that’s fair,” Jimmy advises him after jumping into lawyer mode to save his so-called clients. As Tuco breaks the legs of the boys, we get a few “bitch” remarks that remind us of Jesse and his classic catchphrase.
The next scene offers one of the lighter sequences of the episode. The leg breaking comes back to haunt Jimmy while he’s on a date in a restaurant. The woman’s beautiful looks can’t distract him from the crunchy sound of bread sticks breaking in the background again and again. Maybe a lack of focus is what has kept Jimmy/Saul single all these years.
Later that evening Jimmy drunkenly arrives at Chuck’s house and crashes on his couch. Disturbed by his brother’s bad condition, Chuck is suspicious of whether or not Jimmy followed his house rules and discovers his cellphone and an UrgentCare bill in his pants. Chuck panics about the electronic device, grabs it with a kitchen utensil, and tosses it as far away from the home as possible.
The next morning, Chuck has himself wrapped up in a “space blanket” in light of the cell phone entering the house. The topic of the UrgentCare bill also comes up. Jimmy assures his brother that paying for the broken legs of two boys wasn’t part of a scam. In fact, this was a good thing. “This isn’t Slippin’ Jimmy,” he tells Chuck, in reference to the story he told the boys in episode 1. It seems like Jimmy isn’t being entirely truthful in this scene and wants to do good by his brother, who doesn’t ask any other questions about the broken legs.
Back at the court house with his bad night behind him, Jimmy revs himself up on positive reinforcement (“It’s showtime, folks,” he says in a reference to the 1979 musical All That Jazz) and crappy vending machine coffee before several long days of work. Mike even makes an appearance during this montage, once again sparring with Jimmy over paying for parking.
Though he’s been working hard, Jimmy is not making any progress on his lawyer ambitions. He returns to his office behind the nail salon and kicks back with a cup of liquor when Nacho makes a surprise appearance.
After hearing about Jimmy’s scam in the desert, Nacho reveals that he wants to steal the Kettlemens’ money that they stole, totaling around $1.5 million dollars, because they’re criminals themselves. He likes stealing from these types of people because they can’t go to the cops.
Nacho wants to bring Jimmy onto his team since he was the one who discovered the Kettlemens and was the first to try to rip them off. What a guy, Nacho is! In exchange, he’ll give Jimmy 10%. But Jimmy isn’t digging it. “I’m a lawyer, not a criminal,” he reminds Nacho.
Nacho leaves his number for whenever Jimmy decides he wants to join the game. The former smartly realizes that Jimmy has no other options in terms of a career path. It’s the criminal lawyer business or nothing. But how long will it take for Jimmy to see this?
What did you think of ‘Better Call Saul’ episode 2?
Now that an interesting new heist is coming together, we can’t wait to see how Jimmy and Nacho team up to bring the Kettlemens down. We’re also eager to see how this money changes Jimmy. Maybe he’ll use the influx of cash to pay for Saul Goodman matchboxes.
Better Call Saul returns next Monday, February 16 at 10 p.m. eastern/pacific on AMC. Next week, Mike’s purpose on the show will start to reveal itself.