Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Six: Bali Ha'i

Per usual, let's break down the opening scene. Jimmy's having trouble sleeping at 1:09 AM and heads on over to the TV, where he gets to witness some late night commercials.  In a true "Hey look! It's 2002!" moment, we're treated to a Chia Pet ad, and after a few more channel changes, Jimmy comes upon a commercial produced by Davis & Main for their services in the Sandpiper case. It uses the boring blue wavy background pattern that Jimmy had mocked with Omar a few episodes earlier when he was plotting his own commercial.

Understandably, this compounds the sleeplessness issue and he wanders over to the fridge, smells some Chinese food, decides its gross, and puts it back in there for some reason rather than pitching it. The fridge itself has pretty much nothing in it, which is indicative that Jimmy's not truly settled into this home or this life. After a few rousing rounds of basketball/soccer spinoffs with those wicker balls he joked about with Kim a couple episodes back, it's time to go. Jimmy heads back to the tiny bed in his back-room office at the salon and falls right asleep. Not too subtle with the symbolism here, are we, Vince?

Meanwhile, Mike is finding himself in a bit of a bind. He refused Hector Salamanca's offer of $5,000 to lie and get Tuco out of his jail sentence. Now, Hector's flunkies are swarming his personal life and trying to intimidate him at every turn. In typical Mike fashion, he discovers that there are intruders in his house using carbon paper that he hid under the doormat along with a quick inspection of the door and knob.

In an extremely tense scene crafted by silence and great use of shadows, Mike figures out where Salamanca's guys are hiding by process of elimination and tricks them by turning on the TV (and filling the silent house with the voice of Billy Mays; it's still 2002!) from far away and drawing them out of their hiding place with their backs to him. It's thrilling to watch, but this is classic Mike Ehrmantraut we've been watching for years.

Mike might have shaken off that encounter, but THE COUSINS ARE BACK! The mostly silent and murderous duo from Breaking Bad intimidates Mike from a rooftop when he's hanging out Kaylee by the hotel pool. That proves to be a little much, so he meets with Hector and agrees to say that the gun from the confrontation with Tuco was his after a ballsy negotiation of a $50,000 fee. Nacho comes by to give him the money and in a nice character moment for Mike, he returns $25,000 to Nacho in recognition that Tuco is soon going to be released. The nod Nacho gives in reply is telling -- there's a deepening mutual respect between the two.

Finally, we come to the Kim storyline.  I'm no expert at courtroom speak, but Kim represents HHM at a hearing in front of a judge as she attempts to defend Sandpiper clients against bullying. She doesn't win, but her opponent's boss is impressed with her efforts and invites her to lunch to offer her a job. I found the timing of this very interesting. The job offer would have been most compelling to Kim before the events of last weeks episode in which Chuck found a way to bail Kim out of Howard's doghouse. I'm assuming it would have been easier for Kim to jump ship then, as it'd be a quick and easy way to get out of a bad situation. Now, it's a more interesting situation because Chuck has emerged as a mentor of sorts. Even though Howard's being cold to Kim, Chuck offers hope that she has a future at HHM.

Though Kim turns down the offer initially, she can't help but feel enticed by the freedom it presents. After another swindling of a rich guy with Jimmy at a bar, Jimmy has an honest talk with Kim about the opportunity and explains that it's a way for her to get what she wants, and Kim seems receptive to the idea. The closing scene, with Jimmy destroying that damn too-small cupholder in his corporate car, is pretty telling about the near-term future of Jimmy McGill. But what will Kim do?

Bullet Points

• Howard goes from completely and stonefacedly (that's a word, as of now) ignoring Kim on a long walk to the conference room to upbeat and animated upon seeing their Mesa clients. Another fine moment in the life of CorpLawBot v2.6 Beta.

• "We were just supposed to scare you." Mike: "Well try harder next time."

• The elephant in the room -- Nacho is not a character on Breaking Bad and he's clearly willing to cross Tuco Salamanca. Do his days feel numbered to you? Ahhhh the trouble with prequels.....

• Look, Kim Wexler is cool and all, but she's wearing a Kansas City Royals shirt (in New Mexico, even!). Go fuck yourself, Kim Wexler.

• No Chuck this week. A true crime!