“Nippy”, the 10th episode of “Better Call Saul”, premiered on Netflix. After revealing where Kim was in the previous episode, this time the AMC series takes Bob Odenkirk away from his role as Saul Goodman and even from what Jimmy McGill once was to delve a little deeper into the unexplored life of Gene Takavic. , the alias that the famous Albuquerque lawyer took when fleeing after the events of “Breaking Bad”.
SPOILERS AHEAD
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Gene and Jimmy black and white
“Better Call Saul” had accustomed us to seeing in black and white a bit of the life of Gene Takavic —alias Saul Goodman post “Breaking Bad”— in the first minutes of each season premiere. However, this time the series, in the same style, dedicates an entire episode to this stage in the life of the former lawyer, who now spends his days as the manager of a Cinnabon in a Nebraska shopping center; and where he also has several episodes of panic thinking that he will be caught by the police or killed by some thug.
The decision to show us this stage of Saul’s life in black and white is no accident. Jimmy has lost color in his life, he is a man who spends his days trapped in a sad monotony millions of light years away from his golden days as a lawyer in Albuquerque. As he himself says, at a time when he seems to speak from his heart: “My parents are dead, my brother is dead, I have no wife, no children, no friends. If he died tonight no one would care.”
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This chapter is full of symbolism, but there is one in particular that I think is the most important to understand what this chapter is really about: the ring that our protagonist puts on again, the one that belonged to the late Marco, his best friend and partner in scams during his youth. Recognizing this is crucial, because it is a clear indication of how Jimmy is once again ‘Slippin’ Jimmy’ (Jimmy Patin, in the Latin dub), the nickname he earned during his time as a street hustler.
Thus, the story takes up the black and white plot of Gene, who after being recognized by two fans decides to skip the vacuum cleaner man’s escape route and take care of this problem on his own. This entire episode is a prank by Mcgill, who, still far from recovering his identity as Saul Goodman, plays a dangerous card so that those two men who saw him in the mall do not contact the police and leave him alone forever. What is that play? A robbery at a clothing store during the early morning.
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A strain-flavored Cinnabon
There are two great sequences in this episode: the one with Gene setting up the whole plan by befriending the guards on the early morning shift, and the one with the execution of the robbery. The first one is very funny, but the second one is charged with a tension that seems almost written by Quentin Tarantino. Jeff and his friend must break into the store and steal specific items of clothing in a few minutes, while Jimmy distracts the security guard by treating him to a cinnamon roll made at the Cinnabon he runs.
Finally, after a moment when it seemed that everything was going to hell, everything ends well. Jeff and his friend get the expensive clothes and Gene plays a lawyer by making them understand that if he gets caught they will also fall. Thus, no one will open their mouths and each one will go their own way. But Jeff’s face doesn’t look like a guy who’s had enough, and that might lead to trouble later.
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A happy ending?
“So after all that… happy ending,” Gene tells Jeff’s mom in the last few minutes of the episode. Clearly, this hasn’t been the end of the series, there are still three more chapters to go, but it seems that the show is preparing us to say goodbye to Takavic’s black and white plot, if it hasn’t already done so here.
At the end of this episode we see Gene for the first time happy in his work; obviously because the robbery went well and he was able to be Jimmy again, if only for a little while. In the last scene, we see him in the same store looking at various sacks. At one point he combines a tie and a shirt, as if he is about to become Saul Goodman again, but in the last shot we see how he leaves said outfit and walks away from him; this symbolizes that he knows how dangerous this can be and how that barrier is one that he cannot overcome.
Will the series continue with Gene’s life or will we return to the “Breaking Bad” stage in the next episode? Walter and Jesse’s appearances are still pending, something we will definitely see in some of the next three weeks.
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“Better Call Saul” premieres a new episode every Tuesday on Netflix Latin America.
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