Hey guys, Pete here. This will be my better call Saul season 5 episode 2
recap and review. "50% Off" did something I'm really excited about. It brought
Jimmy back into Nacho's orbit at the end which means we may see the two different
parts of this story finally mesh back together in preparation for the end game.
Spoiler warning: if you haven't watched episode 2 a better call Saul season 5
this video will spoil it for you. hit the subscribe button, tap the bell for
notifications, and then go watch the episode come back here after because I
will be making videos throughout this season. season 5's second episode is titled
50% off that's in reference to the deal that Jimmy discussed with Kim in episode
1. she thought it might come off as
encouraging people to commit crimes if he made this offer he didn't think that
was possible since of course these guys are criminals and they're already out
there doing that anyway. but he did decide not to use the offer only to
change his mind in the heat of the moment later when he was around the
customers. the episode written by Allison Tatlock and directed by Norberto Barba
follows two characters who were indeed inspired to go on a spree by Saul's
offer because, "dude that's like almost half." these two Badger and skinny Pete-esque
flunkies go on a meth filled tear that makes for an enjoyable opening montage. I
mentioned in my episode 1 video that Nacho is the most interesting part of
the cartel side of things for me and after the opening credits we get a
reminder of just how messed up his situation is and this does turn out to
be a pretty nacho heavy episode Tyrus and Victor snatched him out of bed and
you got a feel for nacho here since he has no idea why this is happening
considering he did exactly what Gus instructed him to do if being forced out
of bed in the middle of the night isn't bad enough things quickly escalate to
the worst-case nightmare scenario that he finds himself in they take him to a
place where his father is hanging out and Victor goes inside with the gun
while Nacho has to sit there and watch Gus gets inside the car and tells Nacho
that he needs to know what Lalo Salamanca is up to where he is going
what he's thinking what he is planning I need to know what he's going to do
before he does it Nacho has been trying to keep tabs but
Lalo has been primarily focused on Werner
Mike. Gus uses the threat to Papa to get Nacho to try harder and this is classic
Breaking Bad Gus Fring. this is the guy who slit Victor's throat in front of
Walt and Jesse and by the end of this interaction Nacho knows his neck is on
the line. because Lalo doesn't believe Gus's cover story about the construction
project he goes to visit his tio Hector at Casa Tranquila while he's talking
about Don Eladio and Juan Bolsa not caring about Gus because of the money
that he makes Hector gets his bell ringing finger and high gear Lalo gets
the message and realizes the only way to get at Gus is to mess with his money and
get him in trouble with the cartel Nacho and Lalo come together at a poker game
where we see how Domingo who we know as Krazy-8 from Breaking Bad got his name
Lalo takes the opportunity to make a big bluff holding seven deuce on the river
to get Domingo to fold the best hand before he drags the pot he flips over
his opponents hand to see that he had a set of eights
as he collects the chips he says ocho loco this guy and the name Krazy-8
is born while the Salamanca crew was playing poker our 50% off numbskulls had
arrived at the stash house looking to score ten bags apparently their spree is
still ongoing and based on the big buy it appears that things are going their
way the bags got stuck in the drainpipe on the way down and so now Krazy-8
has to come to the spot and try to figure out what's going on he gets up on
the ladder to try to fix the pipe right at the same time the cops roll up on the
location everyone scatters and they all get away but he's left on the ladder and
has to talk to the police when he gets down as he's doing that he taps on the
pipe the bags drop out right in front of them and he gets arrested Lalo and Nacho
arrived on the scene to check on the stash house and this provides an
opportunity for Nacho to make a daring attempt to earn Lalo's trust he sneaks
into the house because there's still a lot of drugs there and he recovers the
stash just before the police bust down the door well it's a little crazy this
should help move things in the right direction for him one of the things that
makes Lalo a good character is that he's no dummy but I really doubt that this
will strike him as a desperate move by someone who is working against his
interests that seems to be confirmed later when back at the restaurant Lalo
makes food and has not to eat with him so that they can discuss
krazy-8 the most exciting thing about all of this is that Domingo aka krazy-8
is now in custody considering we know he was a confidential informant for the DEA
and specifically for one Hank Schrader and the Breaking Bad timeline and that
we also know that Hank will be making appearance in the next couple of
episodes that table is now set after watching him fold the best hand in the
poker game Lalo has to be wondering if he'll be able to hold up under the
pressure of being questioned when not to ask if he wants him to take care of it
Lalo says no I got something much better for him this is probably tied to what we
see at the end of the episode so we'll pick back up with it when we get there
and Jimmy and Kim land things aren't going very smoothly it feels like Kim is
angry about what happened with her pro bono client on top of not being fully on
board with a decision to practice law as Saul Goodman Jimmy's plans to bring
customers in is working but he can also sense the unease that Kim is having he
tries to improve the situation by taking her to an open house to give her some
hope about a future they could have together this seems to work on some
level as she turns the shower on with him inside getting him all wet that's a
reminder that they do have strong feelings for each other and enjoy each
other despite the current situation on the way out she says maybe someday and
it's comforting to see that there are feelings that a future could be built on
still there earlier at home Kim asked Jimmy how he was gonna deal with so many
new clients and we see him take things head-on at the courthouse we see him
wheeling and dealing again with bill from the DA's office but he's got bigger
things on his mind with a DA Suzanne Ericson who you'll remember from Huell's
case last season while he's waiting for her he runs into Howard Hamlin who makes
his first season five appearance and I must say he's looking a whole lot better
than the last time we saw him Howard congratulate Jimmy on being reinstated
and mentions that Hamlin Hamlin McGill is set to have one of their best years
ever he seems genuinely happy to see Jimmy even if he doesn't really like the
new choice of name and the idea that things are going so well at HHM is
definitely surprising the big surprise here though is that Howard asked Jimmy
to have lunch with him we don't get to find out what it's all about though
because Suzanne exits the courtroom we learned that she is
assigned to 16 of Jimmy's cases and he wants to work out some deals to get them
settled quickly Suzanne see straight through him and
calls him out on wanting quick turnover so that he can make more money her
instincts he are good and she's not willing to work out deals with Jimmy
ahead of their scheduled meeting that's coming up the next week
Jimmy as Saul has gotten himself into this situation by offering the
discounted rates and this is where he actually thrives if she won't respond to
his requests then he will concoct a way to get an audience this plays out in him
setting up for them to get stuck in an elevator together he finds a maintenance
man who could use some extra cash and some legal services and when all is said
and done they have come to an agreement on 13 out of the 16 cases after being
stuck in the elevator together for 20 minutes after he pulls that off things
are looking pretty good for Saul but little does he know this day is about to
take a turn before we get into that we have to address Mike's current situation
we catch up with him at home he's in bed and he looks rough
the phone is ringing next to empty beer cans and liquor bottles and he's not
moving very quickly to address that it turns out Stacey is the one who's
calling and she needs him to come over and watch Kaylee which he agrees to
without question when he arrives things start off well he goes into full-on
grandpa mode he helps her with the multiplication tables using the example
of a football game and touchdowns for sevens and he makes some progress on the
construction of a tree house when the discussion turns to Kaylee asking
questions about her dad things go terribly off the rails
we know that Mike's going through a lot of stuff he's currently dealing with the
remorse over burner and it appears that thinking about Matty and what happened
to him after he joined the police force to be a cop like Mike is sufficient
enough to send him over the edge he completely loses his cool with his
granddaughter yelling you either do it right or you don't do it which leads to
her running away to her room when her mom returns he leaves without explaining
much other than Kaylee was in her room and wouldn't eat dinner
we know Mike can be a hard person when he has to be but this was pretty
perplexing and difficult to watch if there was any question as to how he's
holding up after the events of season 4 I think this clears it up we close out
the episode with Jimmy who's enjoying an
ice-cream cone after his elevator encounter with the ad a he's taking
calls and working his magic as Nacho pulls up which I'm guessing is related
to Lalo's plans that he mentioned earlier it's actually been a long time
since these two have been together way back in season one with the Kettlemans
and the way things were left at that time Jimmy has no choice but to go along
with Nacho here as he does owe him he gets in the car
unfortunately the ice cream cone can't come along which is a big loss and they
drive off together and this is sort of like everything finally coming full
circle better call Saul is undoubtedly one of
the best television shows that's on currently but if there's one criticism
that comes up about the show over and over it's about how the two stories the
one with Jimmy and the one with Mike kind of exists beside each other rather
than being intertwined that's what makes this ending so exciting the fact that
Jimmy is going to have to work for Nacho which of course works for Lalo really
moves us firmly into the endgame remember when we first met Jimmy these
are the two people's names he mentioned whenever he was being questioned by Walt
and Jesse the show has taken some time to get there actually more time than
what they had originally planned based on the fact that Jimmy and Chuck and that
whole storyline was so good but now we have finally arrived it's funny on top
of that because Jimmy's deal his 50% off deal is what set off the spree that
landed those two kids outside of the stash house that set up Domingo aka
Krazy-8 getting busted and now he's bringing jimmy nacho Lalo Gus Mike and
everybody inevitably back together it's a pretty exciting ending and a pretty
good episode overall we're starting to see Jimmy hit his stride as being Saul
Goodman we're starting to see the divide between him and Kim widen a little bit
and we're primed to cross over with Breaking Bad characters Hank and Gomie
which is going to provide a lot of fanservice at the same time I like the
one-two punch they delivered here with these first two episodes releasing them
back-to-back everything seems to be caught up to
speed and the table seems to be set I'm
curious to see what Lalo is up to heck you're telling him to go after the money
is interesting and of course how he's going to choose to deal with Domingo now
that he's been taken into custody I hope we don't spend too much time with Mike
being in this dark place that he's at in this episode with so much other stuff
going on it seems a little bit superfluous and that we know where
Mike's story goes but I'm not exactly worried about it because I have a lot of
trust in the writers of this television show because they are some of the best
in the game let me know in the comments what you guys thought about this episode
how do you feel about season 5 so far it's kind of strange because it's hard
to decide whether it's Jimmy or Saul a lot of times when I'm writing these
things out now he's still somewhere in between and depending on if he's with
Kim or if he's at work we see a little bit of both still that brings up the
idea that I've heard Bob Odenkirk say in a couple of different interviews before
the season started about how Saul is a persona what we see in Breaking Bad is a
persona I'll be interested to see how his evolution continues please like this
video if you enjoyed it please leave comments or questions and let me know
where you think things are going please subscribe to my channel if you haven't
already I'll be covering this season and the final one all the way through I may
come up with a couple bonus videos in between but I'll definitely be doing
weekly recaps at the bare minimum thanks for watching I'll talk to you soon