Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Two: "Cobbler"

So the baseball cards were real after all. I'm a little ticked that Wormald, geek and Worst Criminal in the History of the Universe, just HAS to be a gigantic baseball fan. Look at you, Vince Gilligan, giving us who obsess over the great American pastime a bad name.

Anydangway, Chuck plays piano! The opening scene of this week's episode was outstanding without much at all happening. Our favorite Worst Brother in the History of the Universe is practicing playing Sicilliene and it seems like a very precise, painstaking process. He's got one of those ticky devices to keep the rhythm (a "metronome" -- I learned something today!) and when he screws up (which takes awhile, Chuck is actually quite good), he gets frustrated and starts back over from the beginning, not allowing himself to continue from the point of the mistake. No shortcuts allowed. It's a nice character moment that lines up well with everything Chuck wants himself to stand for.

Eventually, Chuck's unique brand of self-torture is interrupted by a visit from Howard Hamlin, who drops by and informs Chuck that Jimmy will be working the Sandpiper case in his new role with Davis & Main. Chuck plays this off like he's happy for Jimmy. I genuinely don't get this -- shouldn't Hamlin already be pretty familiar with how Chuck feels about Jimmy practicing law? How did their conversation go last season when Jimmy wanted to join HHM? Lots of unanswered questions here.

Anyway, as work kicks off on the Sandpiper case, we see a couple signs that Kim's still interested in Jimmy. She swaps other peoples' seats at the table so that she and Jimmy are next to each other and there's some super-hot ankle rubbing going on under the table. When discussing Jimmy's future home, she has a bit of a Freudian slip, saying "we should get one of those smokers, barbeque for days", including herself in the vision. The two kiss before Jimmy departs to pick up his brand new corporate car.

Meanwhile, back in Wormald land, Danny Baseball is showing up at the police station, for some reason, to pursue recovery of his baseball cards using the help of cops, for some reason, in his gigantic "blinking neon sign of a vehicle that says 'drug dealer'", for some reason. Mike advises him to cut off communications with the police, in part to protect his own safety, but winds up on the hook to recover the baseball cards to prevent the distraught Wormald from proceeding with his hilariously stupid plan.

Mike tracks down Nacho working at his family's upholstery repair shop and pressures him to return the cards. When Nacho refuses, he invokes Tuco Salamanca's name to scare him into cooperating, and even promises Wormald's monstrous Hummer in exchange for far less cash than it's worth. The plan works, and Mike kills two birds with one stone. Nacho tells Wormald that their business is concluded.

Back at HHM, Jimmy talks strategy on the Sandpiper case and is briefly overcome by Chuck entering the room until Kim gives him a quick shot of confidence. The two have a strange encounter after the meeting, and immediately after, Jimmy gets a call from Mike asking him if he's still "morally flexible". Seeing an timely opportunity to continue to distance himself from everything Chuck stands for, Jimmy replies in the affirmative.

As it turns out, the job Mike had in mind was to convince the cops of Wormald's innocence. Jimmy gets in a room with Daniel and the cops, and after a minute or so of Wormald making the situation worse for himself, as he is wont to do, Jimmy takes over the conversation and begins to begin a spectacularly bizarre yarn about what Wormald was hiding behind his baseboards. He claims that Wormald's the creator of some sort of "art" videos and repeatedly insists that they're private. What sort of videos could these be?  Why, "squat cobbler", of course!  Crybaby squats, in particular. Anyhow, the police seem to temporarily buy this story that Wormald gets into a costume, tapes himself sitting in pie, and that there's a certain category of sicko in this world that becomes aroused by that behavior. "Hey, the world is a rich tapestry, my friends."

He discusses the charade with a very amused Kim over pie (what else?), during which Jimmy reveals that he asked Wormald to make such a video. It's fabrication of evidence and she calls him on it. Now that Jimmy's shenanigans have spilled over into his legal responsibilities, it's no longer fun and games for Kim and she tells him that she can no longer hear about such deeds.

Bullet Points

• I'd practice piano exactly the same way as Chuck. Maybe that contributed to my fascination.

• Jimmy's gift from Kim is a coffee mug that says "World's 2nd Best Lawyer". It was interesting seeing that gift revealed right after Jimmy finished making Kim feel nice and jealous about Jimmy's new gig.

• Man, those salon girls really lost it over seeing the weird guy living and working out of the back room getting delivered a Mercedes-Benz.

• The World's 2nd Best Lawyer coffee mug doesn't fit into the Benz' cupholders, but it fits nicely into the one in the little yellow shitbox. Is there a message here, Vince?

• "I tried to learn in high school, but then I decided there were easier ways to get girls."

• So even though we're no longer supposed to think that Hamlin is a dirtbag, is it weird that every time he talks he still seems like the scum of the earth?

• What's your pleasure -- Hoboken squat cobbler, full moon moon pie, Boston creme splat, or simple Simon the ass man?

• That. Pie. Looked. Awesome.