by Carl Franzen
Pass the novelty Jell-O. It’s kind of hard to believe, but Better Call Saul just keeps getting better. Funnier, more quietly devastating at times, and more intriguing. That last part is no small feat especially given the fact that loyal Breaking Bad viewers already know what will happen to two of the series’ lead cast members, Saul aka Jimmy McGill, and his eventual private eye Mike Ehrmantraut. Rather than retreat from that inevitable familiarity, series creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould are cleverly mining it to add more layers of depth to both of these fan favorites in BCS, especially in this week’s episode, “Alpine Shepherd Boy.”
Related: Read All Previous Better Call Saul Recaps
Embodying the “actions have direct consequences” vision of morality that ran throughout Breaking Bad, “Alpine Shepherd Boy” picks up right where last week’s episode left off, just minutes after Jimmy’s electromagnetically-paranoid other brother Chuck braved the outdoors in a space blanket to take his neighbor’s newspaper. I for one thought that the scene ended cleverly enough last week, when Chuck got the newspaper back into his house and punctured Jimmy’s deception by reading about his exploits on the front page. But Gilligan, Gould and Bradley Paul (the other writer credited to this episode) saw an opportunity to extend the drama of the moment by having Chuck’s neighbor call the cops on him.
Of course, Chuck being being both reclusive and lawyerly, tries to shoo the cops away from inside by shouting legal jargon at them through his closed door. But in another brilliant nod to the series’ origins, the cops spot canisters of campfire stove fuel through Chuck’s back window and suspect he’s a meth “tweaker.” In about the worst possible outcome for Chuck given his supposed electromagnetic sensitivity, they bust in and taser him — a scene which the episode craftily cuts away from before we actually see it all go down, making it seem somehow worse in our imaginations.
We then get a laugh-out-loud hilarious series of scenes in which Jimmy pays house calls to potential clients who saw his billboard stunt from last week. Given Jimmy’s luck so far, we shouldn’t be surprised that most of these people are themselves more than a little off-kilter, from Richard “Ricky” Sipes, the wealthy secessionist redneck who wants Jimmy to help him fight the US government but is only willing to pay him in his own worthless “Sandia Republic” currency, to the young father-turned inventor who wants to patent a talking toilet (“Tony the Toilet Buddy”) he built to potty train his kids, which Jimmy notes is oddly sexual in its reinforcements. “Give it to me Chandler, I want it all, Ahhh.”
Jimmy finally winds up at the home of a sweet old lady, Mrs. Strauss, helping her draft a complicated will to bequeath her descendants her most valued possessions: a fantastically large collection of tiny novelty figurines straight out of the “Precious Moments” lineup. Somehow it makes sense that Jimmy would hit it off with this cute old woman, accurately remembering which figure she promised to which relative. When she compliments him by saying he’s not an idiot like other lawyers, he comes back with an especially apt line: “Only half of us are idiots, the other half are crooks.”
We obviously know which category Jimmy falls into. Yet again we see him trying to do right by his troubled older brother. His late night pedicure session with his onetime love interest and friend Kim Wexler gets interrupted when she gets a call that Chuck has been hospitalized. Kim and Jimmy rush to Chuck’s bedside, where Jimmy frantically shuts off all the various electrically equipment in the room that’s been causing Chuck to freak out.
Jimmy and Chuck try to explain Chuck’s condition to the attending doctor and Chuck finally puts a name to it: electromagnetic hypersensitivity. A real but controversial phenomena experienced by a small handful of people, Chuck describes a number of what he says are painful physical symptoms, including a “burning sensation in my skin,” “sharp cold in my bones,” and “vertigo,” — the latter of which has been well depicted in the jaggy cinematography whenever Chuck encounters electrical devices. He and Jimmy both adamantly resist the doctor’s suggestion that Chuck be committed to a psychiatric facility. Yet Dr. Cruz craftily proves that Chuck’s condition is really psychosomatic in origin by turning on his motorized hospital bed without him noticing.
“That was a dirty trick,” Jimmy says to Doctor Cruz when they step outside Chuck’s hospital room. Again, who would know better? Doctor Cruz counters by pointing out that Jimmy is enabling Chuck more than he’s helping him. And when Howard Hamlin, Chuck’s former law partner arrives like the cavalry and tells Jimmy he wants to keep Chuck out of the psych ward in order to avoid having to cash him out of the firm, Jimmy finally seems to come around to the idea that Chuck should be committed.
First though, he takes Chuck back home. And in what will become only the second saddest scene in the episode, we watch as Jimmy clumsily apologizes to Chuck for his billboard stunt, saying the shame he’s caused Chuck is the real root of Chuck’s symptoms (“You got sick cause you saw this story!”) We realize now that Jimmy’s steadfast care for his older brother is motivated not only out of a sense of duty to Chuck for having bailed him out of trouble countless times, but also out of guilt for causing his brother trouble in the first place.
But the theme of the episode, “elder care,” again turns comedic when Jimmy takes his success with Mrs. Strauss and runs with it. He visits in a nursing home dressed like Matlock and shamelessly schmoozes the residents as they down cups of gelatin with his likeness and latest slogan printed on the bottom: “Need a will? Call McGill!” This is perhaps the most Saul-like moment we’ve seen on the show yet, and it’s awesome to see Jimmy developing and refining his trademark sleezy style.
The episode closes with Mike Ehrmantraut, still a parking attendant, getting off his graveyard shift and parking his car outside a suburban home. Is he stalking someone? Spying on them? Playing off our familiarity with his work on Breaking Bad, the writers make us suspect he’s up to no good. But then Doctor Cruz emerges from the house and glares at him from her own car, and Mike’s silent, saddened expression tells us there’s some secret unresolved drama between them. We can’t help but think this must be Mike’s daughter, the mother of the granddaughter he dotes upon later in Bad. But for now, she’s just someone who’s not happy to see him.
A forlorn Mike then returns home and sits alone in front of his TV. Here we realize that despite their so-far contentious relationship, he and Jimmy are actually kindred spirits — both trying to care for their loved ones but falling short, and both solitary and guilt-ridden as a result. Mike’s pitiable moment is interrupted by a knock at the door: the cops and a few plainclothes detectives, one of whom Mike knows and calls out. “You’re a long way from home aren’t you?” Mike asks the man. “You and me both,” the investigator answers. They might be, and so too is Jimmy. But Breaking Bad viewers are right back where they belong.
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