<em>Better Call Saul</em> "Amarillo" Recap: Who Stole My Nest Egg?!

AMC

Last week on Better Call Saul, Chuck came out of isolation, Mike dealt with a messy feud, and Jimmy made a promise. This week, Chuck raised some objections, Mike took a new job, and Jimmy made an ad. Let's talk about the latest episode, "Amarillo," below.

"Whatever Happened To Showmanship?" This week we really dove into the inner workings of retirement home class action lawsuits—and it is a testament to the show, and its unique blend of bleak tension and absurd humor, that this was another great installment that kept us deeply involved with the plot far more than we'd expect from an episode revolving around mailers, ethical discussions about solicitation, highly-targeted TV commercials, and sweet old ladies who watch Murder, She Wrote.

Showmanship was one of the two major themes running through "Amarillo," from Jimmy's opening gambit with the elderly bus riders (Matlock Jimmy is back!) to the writers' masterful juggling of references, nods, and foreshadowing to the entire Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul extended universe. We got a risky Slippin' Jimmy scam, a thematically-attuned Mike B-story, a dash of romantic fatalism with Kim, and another reminder of Jimmy's achilles heel, with some obscure BB callbacks and familiar faces from Saul season one popping up throughout.

The centerpiece of the episode is the commercial scheme: Jimmy took one look at the exquisitely-boring Mesothelioma ad ("Kinda nebulous, but not too nebulous"), and gets that Saul Goodman twinkle in his eyes. He knows he can make something more cinematic, and his version won't involve a lot of meetings about the speed of background swirls. And so he enlists some "ass clown" videographers—last seen helping him out with his billboard scam from the season one episode "Hero"—to enter the heady world of television advertising.

Jimmy lays out his vision for the ad in Scorsesian flourishes (or at least as much as someone who doesn't know the word for "dolly" can), which leads to a very effective commercial that seems like a bastard cousin of Don and Peggy's Glo-Coat ad from season four of Mad Men. This plotline also includes the funniest moment of the episode, as Mrs. Strauss (the lovely old lady from season one episode "Alpine Shepherd Boy") descends on her stair lift while paraphrasing Sunset Boulevard: "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. McGill."

Wrong For The Right Reasons: The other major theme of the episode: the trigger points that lead to people compromising themselves. Jimmy was only pushed into creating the ad in the first place because Chuck called him out for doing such a (suspiciously) good job tracking down Sandpiper victims. If Chuck hadn't been there "to bear witness," as he warned Jimmy last episode, no one else would have raised an eyebrow, and Jimmy would be singing folk songs with Ed Begley Jr (aka Cliff). Instead, Chuck's meddling presence is an anchor unbalancing Jimmy's attempts to walk the straight and narrow—having someone around who is eager to see him fail is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But Kim momentarily takes his breath away with her confidence and support: "You and I both know you can do this job. But please, you just have to do it right," she emphasizes. Later on, sitting beside Kim on the couch of his fancy new corporate apartment (complete with massive rubber band balls), it's clear that her words got through to him. Jimmy really does want to live up to her expectations of him. But as much as he wants to be the "golden boy," he can't shake his brother and his own doubts.

And he ends up with a compromised version of "doing the right thing" that reminds me most of Frank Sobotka in season two of The Wire. "I knew I was wrong," Sobotka reflected once all his crooked dealings caught up with him. "But in my head, I thought I was wrong for the right reasons."

"Who Stole My Nest Egg?!" may have been filmed abiding by the rules and regulations of the American Bar Association, but Jimmy made the fatal decision that it'd be easier to smooth things over with Cliff after the fact. He took a big risk thinking that his results would dazzle them and overshadow his questionable methods. It's the kind of mindset Saul Goodman will use to get away with a lot of shit in the future, but Jimmy McGill can't pull these shenanigans on his current corporate overlords (especially not when he's dealing in half-measures, and we all know how useless those are). It doesn't matter that he really did get results—103 phone calls came in thanks to a $700, under the radar commercial. Cliff has lost trust in him, and he sees who he is now: Jimmy isn't "a little eccentric," he's "a goddamn arsonist."

There's no better visual representation of how Jimmy's feeling (between doing the right thing and "doing the right thing") than the Miles Toland painting, which he takes a moment to admire as his commercial airs on TV.

Ice Station Callbacks: As Alan Sepinwall pointed out, the movie that Kim and Jimmy are watching toward the end is Ice Station Zero, a 1963 Rock Hudson/Ernest Borgnine film with some deep roots in the BB universe. Ice Station Zebra Associates was the name of a holding company used by Saul Goodman for tax evasion (as first seen in the season three episode "Abiquiú").

What Did Mike Do This Week?: Although he's still stuck in definite B-story territory, at least Mike got his meatiest plot of the season so far. Mike's story served as a very nice parallel to Jimmy's this episode—he keeps trying to do the right thing by his loved ones (in this case, his granddaughter Kylee and her mom Stacey, making their first major appearance since the mighty "Five-O"), and it drags him farther down into the underworld he's been (mostly) trying to avoid.

Was Stacey making up the story about the gunshots to push Mike into helping pay for a new house in a safer neighborhood? Or is she still traumatized by her husband's death (and perhaps, subconsciously, still blames Mike)? Either way, $200 bodyguard jobs don't quite cut it anymore, which leads to a final meeting with Nacho to get some "next level pay."

"I've got a problem...this problem, I can't solve it myself," Nacho tells him in a very dramatic, dimly-lit final warehouse scene that immediately brings to mind some of Mike's early Breaking Bad appearances (also very dramatic, very dimly-lit). "There's a guy, I need him to go away."

It doesn't seem like Mike will be sitting on the sidelines much longer: Jonathan Banks summarized the rest of Mike's season two arc to TV Guide: "One word: violence."

As for who that guy may be, AMC may have inadvertently pointed the finger at an old friend we haven't seen since episode two—although others think it could be someone even more exciting. The anticipation is unbearable.

The Honorary Huell Babineaux 'What The Huell Else' Section:

• The highlight of last week's episode was the hysterical "squat cobbler" police interrogation scene. Apparently, they really did film the pie wiggling act, and we'll get to see it at some point: "It's something I know people will want to see," actor Mark Proksch, who plays crybaby squatter Daniel Warmolt, told TV Guide. "Vince [Gilligan] and [executive producer Peter Gould] have hinted on the podcast that you may somehow, some way, at some point, get to see them...if they do exist, they'll be some of the most disturbing things you will ever see." He added that we also might see the character again later this season. Warmolt is now one step closer to becoming the Gale Boetticher of Saul.
• Jesse Pinkman may also be returning to the ABQ sooner than anybody thought: in a Reddit AMA last week, actor Aaron Paul was asked whether he was open to making an appearance on the show. His response: "Yeah of course! I'm such a huge fan of Better Call Saul, and of course everyone behind the show. So, who knows?... maybe I already shot it?... it might be airing this season? I don't know. Well, actually, I do know, but you'll have to watch and see. But yeah, I'd absolutely be opened to it and we have discussed the possibility."
• If you're a really big Saul fan and/or you live in the general vicinity of New Mexico and/or have a lot of frequent flyer miles, you may want to circle August 6th on your calendar: the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, are hosting a Better Call Saul night that evening, the highlight of which is the jersey below.