Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 4
Hit and Run, directed by Kim's Rhea Seehorn brings us down a few levels from last week, but gives us an episode that is crucial in merging the sub-threads together. And we finally get the next stage of Kim and Saul's plan in taking down Howard, with the Hamlin spending some time on his therapist’s couch.
In a moment that frames us more into thinking that what Saul and Kim are doing to Howard is not deserved, we learn that his personal life has it's issues, especially with his wife. And as Howard begins to speak to his Therapist about this, it's also the moment in which we cut to the back of his head, and soon realise that this is actually Jimmy, in full makeup, dressed up as the usually bright Hamlin. He sneaks around outside the office, using the keys he had forged by Huell, taking to Howard's NAMAST3 car to begin the next stage of the plan.
We then come to Kim at a nearby cafe, who appears anxious, moving the table around to just the right position and continuously looking over her shoulder.She hides her cellphone under the table and it's not long until her meeting with Clifford Main begins and the man himself arrives. It's at this point that she hopes to convince him to partner up with her on a project that will allow her to do more pro bono work, but of course, drag Howard down too.
She texts jimmy, who is currently at the crossroads motel seen in Breaking Bad, and this is where he picks up returning character Wendy and speeds off to Kim's location. When they arrive, Kim acts shocked with Cliff as Jimmy stops nearby and Wendy is pushed out the door, pretending to curse about him owing her money. He drives off, as Main asks Kim “Isn’t that Howard?” The con is of course successful and seeing Wendy and root beer return in a hilarious scene, is quite the treat for us fans of the Breaking Bad world.
Kim Wexler and Mike
Soon after this though, Kim drops off Wendy back at the motel, but it's in doing so that she picks up on someone following her. If you remember, at the end of Episode 2 we saw a car following her and Jimmy and now that same car is one she keeps spotting.
And when she and Jimmy discuss the successful ploy later on in the day, she asks Jimmy if he ever feels like he’s being followed. Jimmy says, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth," and with this he's trying to make her feel safe, because he believes she's just questioning the situation following a tense undertaking. What Jimmy doesn't know is that Kim is in fact right and someone is on her tail.
When she's dealing with a client in the el camino diner, she sees the same car yet again and this time, goes over the road to confront them on why they keep following. The men don't really say anything or give anything away, but it's when she get's back to the diner, that a man waits at the counter and starts to open up. And this it's noneother then Mike Ehrmantraut.
I did say that I thought it was Mike or his men following them, because the other potential candidates didn't seem very likely. That is confirmed here and in the conversation, Mike reassures her that it was all through him. He reveals to her that Lalo is in fact not dead and that he may be planning to come after her and Jimmy. He does say it's unlikely but I'm sure that actually means there's a good chance of it happening and the hitman states that his cars will continue to be around just in case something does go down.
Kim asks Mike why he hasn't told Jimmy and he replies, “because I think you’re made of sterner stuff". And that very much is the sort of perspective we get of Jimmy in this episode, as by the end of it he gets more involved with clients who know Lalo without a worry and then in reflection, Gus and Kim are both anxious about a potential threat from Lalo. So the question is, how will this change over the season? And as a whole, it does get us more worried about the potential threat to Kim's life as things start to build up.
Saul Goodman's Office From Breaking Bad
After this went down, it's at the end of the episode, where a quite worried Kim meets with Jimmy at the strip mall, where he's excited to show off the new office space he wants to rent, as the owner of the nail Salon has apparently kicked him out. This is after we see him at the Salon, gaining a lot of money through loads of new clients. One of these clients is Spooge from Breaking Bad's Peakaboo episode and they recognise Saul as Salamanca's guy.
So it's no wonder that Kim is hesitant, because he's got all of these new clients through the cartel and in the meantime, Lalo is still alive and probabaly on his way to get some revenge. It's definitely a worrying time for her and it will be intriguing to see what changes in her plan with Jimmy and also what Lalo's move eventually is.
But when they meet at the strip mall, we see the empty office which will eventually become Saul's in Breaking Bad and Kim tells him that the place is dirty, yet makes for a great location with all of it's surrounding assets. Kim doesn't tell him about the conversation she had with Mike, but instead, she praises the office choice because of locations like the jail, the courthouse, and Taco Cabeza being close, and that Jimmy should totally go for it.
So Saul's office is all but secured and the only thing left to do is deck it out and put that giant inflatable Statue of Liberty on top of the building. That'll happen very soon, but what also could be approaching fast, is the threat of Lalo. And in the final shot as they walk away from the office, Kim is seen looking over her shoulder as she and Jimmy head off to have Tacos.
She’s not the only one worried about lalo, as we also see with Gus, but what it reversely shows is that Jimmy is quite unequipt and unaware of what is truly about to go down. While he now has endless possibilities with business opening up, he’s looking at an office that will eventually become a known criminal's base of operations, with not the degree of security that someone like Gus has.
Gus Fring's Secret Compound
And this is where we come to the reverse of that in what we see of Gus Fring in this episode. That couple riding their bikes in the cold open, had cycled back to a darkened house, which had rooms full of computer monitors displaying the cameras fixed on Gus's house. We now see Gus arriving home and we get a full look at what's hiding underneath.
It turns out that he has a secret lair and the camera follows him while he undertakes his routine, taking off a bulletproof vest and moving downstairs to show us a secret pasageway. Behind moving bookcases, there is an underground route that takes us to the living room of the darkened house with cyclists and security men, and also there is Mike himself.
Mike apparently has men working all day over Albuquerque, even though Lalo hasn't showed up or made a move as of yet. But Gus insists that Lalo is alive, and like him, he also has a compound. And Gus, like Kim, is terrified by the potential threat from Lalo, while Jimmy for the timebeing, remains unaware of the the Salamanca still alive and heading their way.
Gus is also looking over his shoulder but it's really only himself who has the security to defend. It's a cool reflection on the opening scene of Season 6, where we see Saul's expensive house, glammed up with a golden toilet and loads of fancy shirts, yet no sense of security. While Gus's compound is dimmer, it's also more organised like him, and very reflection to the real sitation going on and life he lives.
I think it's very telling for the kind of person Jimmy becomes and partially is, being someone who is unaware to the consequences that could come with the life he's becomes apart of. And seeing that on display with the threat of Lalo getting closer, makes us all the more tense as this season progresses. We'll have to see how this Lalo situation unfolds, but I think after this episode, it's likely that Saul and Kim, will be one of his targets.
Episode 4 Review
Better Call Saul is continuing to prove that every minute of screentime is worth the focus. Even in a much calmer episode in comparison to last week's Rock and Hard Place, they know where the focus is to be put and how to balance a show of ranging viewpoints and character emotions.
They explore yet another section of Albuquerque, New Mexico and remind us with the re-introductions of two Breaking Bad characters, that the world of that show is about to explode here too. It’s not just the courthouse or boardrooms that we are used to seeing and the world is much bigger in this escalating story.
We get that straight from the start with a pair of neighborhood cyclists who are more concerned with with what colour a certain house is rather than the dodgy dealings going around. And this reflection is further propelled by the comparison of Gus and Saul. Jimmy is not equipt as well as Gus to fend off an upcoming threat and has to do all the dirty work homself.
And we also see the littler details like with the inner-struggles of Howard in his personal life. They had the time to give us a quick look into Howard’s personal session, displaying that his bright attitude is hiding quite the issues at home he really does have. It reminds us that while he's quite the annoying person, he doesn't deserve what Saul and Kim are doing to him with their cons.
But as a whole, it's an episode that displays the fears of an approaching threat, comparing that contrast to Jimmy, who's diving deeper into this criminal world with clients who also know Lalo. It'll be interesting to see what Lalo's next move is and how they all deal with that leading into breaking bad. But in the words of Howard, it's clear that Better Call Saul is only getting warmed up.
Final Thoughts
Hit and Run is the first episode of tv directed by Kim's Rhea Seehorn, and it's clear she had some fun with staging the moments that took place, in particular with that tracking shot of Gus moving underground from his house into a neighbour's one. Seeing the building anxiety in his character and Kim's was a highlight and contrasting that with the moment of Jimmy pretending to be Howard in makeup makes for quite the range of tones experty joined together.
It's not the most dramatic of episodes, but after last week, it's great to have one that shows the forming connection of all the different threads. This is crucial for the end of this season to work and with other smaller details like what we got with Clifford Main, explaining why he would be interested with Howard's activity, makes it all the more interesting.
Even in a cooler episode after the devastating events of last week, there’s always things to enjoy here, and it shows that with Better Call Saul there's no filler.
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