That's Why He's The Law...Talkin' Guy

The annals of TV history are packed with spinoffs that never made it out from the shadow of the shows that inspired them, and poor Better Call Saul -- as the spinoff of Breaking Bad, one of the most acclaimed series ever -- started its life in just about the darkest, loomingest shadows imaginable. But while its Breaking Bad ancestry could have been a weight that crushed Saul immediately, instead what we've seen already is how smart the people who've made it are, and how they're putting many of the lessons they learned on Bad to use on its prequel.

First, there's the cliffhanger the first episode ended on. Jimmy McGill is pretty sure the scam he was running with a couple of skateboard punks is about to fall apart, so when he happens to see a couple of decks abandoned with the car he thinks they were targeting, he storms up to the door to try to salvage their plan...only to be greeted with the barrel of a gun in his face instead. Blackout! Heightening a moment and cutting it off before climax could give way to catharsis was a classic Breaking Bad move, and when we pick back up in Episode 2 -- thoughtfully scheduled, by AMC, just one night later instead of one week -- the elliptical storytelling structure also feels familiar: instead of resuming exactly where we were, we back up a few paces, to what Tuco was doing just before the aforementioned punks came to the door trying -- unwisely -- to secure their own payday. Just as Tuco has finished taking care of the matter for the time being, here comes some other asshole adding to his hassle. And this one's not going to stop talking until he's forced to, whatever that may turn out to mean.

By the time Jimmy ends up in this situation, we've already seen Walter White in countless iterations of this kind of conflict -- a combination of hubristic planning and bad luck brings a guy who's in over his head into conflict to a drug-dealing psychopath -- and seen them go every kind of way they can, from Walter blubbering in fear to Walter winning the battle with a show of either legitimate or effectively phony strength. So now that it's Jimmy's turn to be driven out to the middle of the desert with a couple of unfortunate confederates for all their lives to be threatened, this scene has to do all the work in establishing this character that the previous hour or so of TV didn't already do, and it has to work really well. Thank God Michelle MacLaren was available to direct.

By the time we get to the desert, Jimmy's already tried his first trick: talking Tuco out of any bad ideas he may have by pairing pretty words with craven self-abasement. Since we're in the desert, it's pretty clear that hasn't worked. So, under extreme duress, he tries each other idea that comes into his head, one at a time. First: the truth -- the story of the embezzling Kettlemans, whose business he was trying to get in the series premiere. Next, upon the reveal of a toolbox full of potential torture devices and the imminent threat of having his finger cut off: the lie that he's an undercover FBI agent. When Nacho, apparently Tuco's most trusted lieutenant, questions "Agent Jeffrey Steele" about the particulars of his investigation, Jimmy reverts to the truth, including the promise that neither he nor his associates will pursue any action, which is easy to believe given how big a coward Jimmy has been to date.

Nacho's wisdom -- advising against drawing attention to their business by killing a lawyer -- helps Jimmy to get himself out of the immediate peril, and I was pretty sure that was going to be where things ended: with Jimmy walking away and leaving the punks to their fate. But since this scene needs to establish what kind of guy Jimmy is at this point in his life, that can't be the end. He has to go back and try to argue for their lives. And he does, using the same kind of complete bullshit we heard him try at the top of the series premiere, when he was defending his corpse fuckers in court -- here, a fabrication about the boys' sainted single mother and how much she'd miss them if they were gone. But as fast a talker as Jimmy is, especially with terror shit probably seeping through his cheap suit pants, he can't get them all the way off the hook.

And the negotiation that ensues is textbook. Once Jimmy's made Tuco see the value in showing his kingly beneficence by being merciful with the boys' lives, Jimmy has to talk Tuco out of all his most brutal options -- not skinning them; not blinding them; not giving them Colombian neckties. Finally, Jimmy talks Tuco down from breaking all eight of their arms and legs to just breaking one leg each. And if the mark of a good compromise is that no one is happy, then this compromise is great.

As strong as the dialogue of this scene is -- which is very -- the best work comes from Michael Mando as Nacho. Tuco and his enforcers set upon the kids, getting ready to hold them down. Jimmy starts shambling away, probably still catching his breath at the shock of having gotten through this transaction alive. But as Jimmy starts to turn away, Nacho indicates, silently, that Jimmy's not done.

Though it's doubtful that Jimmy would have gone home feeling great about his work today, Nacho makes sure he knows that he's not excused from what comes next. And as Jimmy watches, in horror, what happens to his clients, Nacho watches Jimmy.

Jimmy may go on from this experience to try being as straight a lawyer as he can -- taking every shit PD case he's offered, feeding his face-tattooed clients lines, pleading for deals with the ADA -- Nacho knows in this moment that Jimmy can be of use. When Nacho comes to Jimmy's pathetic office, weeks or possibly months later, with a proposal that they go after the Kettlemans together, the Jimmy who's a good brother to Chuck, who talked Tuco down from double murder to a couple of broken legs (on, let's face it, a couple of dickheads the world really wouldn't miss), can't fathom it. But Nacho knows better, and leaves him a number: "For when you figure out you're in the game." Jimmy denies it, because he doesn't know that, in that really pretty amazing scene, Nacho saw Jimmy's future.