Better Call Saul “Nippy”

Oh hey!  Carol Burnett!

And a whole episode in black-and-white?

OK, to be clear, black-and-white are the post Breaking Bad scenes.  Here’s a whole episode where Jimmy–as Gene Takavic–helps a cabbie who recognized Gene as Saul Goodman to pull off a scam at the local mall.  Since the one security guard is Jim O’Heir, Parks and Rec‘s Jerry, I am not all that surprised to see Jimmy succeed here.  But essentially, this is an episode-long demonstration that Jimmy hasn’t lost his skills as scamming.

It’s not a bad scam.  It involves bribing the security guards with a nightly Cinnabun, talking college sports (something Jimmy clearly knows nothing about to start), timing out how long the guards can be distracted and how much Jeff the Cabbie can steal without getting caught.  But the real question is why Jimmy would do all this.

It mostly comes down to Jimmy’s concern that Jeff could reveal to the authorities that Saul Goodman is nearby, and Jimmy is a good enough judge of character that he can tell Jeff wants a score of his own, leading Jimmy to basically guide Jeff (and Jeff’s buddy Buddy) through a scam.  He takes nothing from it.  Why do it?

Well, his inner Saul seems to be coming out, so that’s not good, but he claims he did it out of “mutually assured destruction,” to give himself enough dirt on Jeff to keep Jeff from saying something.

But that can’t be it, can it?  I still have three or four more episodes of this show to go.  Jimmy isn’t the sort of person who can just walk away from that.  He had far too many opportunities to do so, but he always goes back.  Plus, I doubt you cast Carol Burnett for a small role that doesn’t amount to much.  That doesn’t make sense.

Jimmy’s a self-destructive guy who was able to hold it all together when Kim was nearby.  Here, she isn’t, and he seems like he’s dying inside.

Yeah, this won’t go well for Jimmy in the end.