Better Call Saul - S5E4: Namaste
BETTER CALL SAUL - AMCThe penultimate season of Better Call Saul is not fooling around. Namaste never wastes a second, wiring up more fuses to light up the climactic explosions. A member of the show’s exceptional writing team, Gordon Smith showcases sheer confidence in his directorial debut. His written teleplay might be full of pure set-ups, but it always has great momentum, even in slow, brooding moments.
Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) is doing well being Saul Goodman. With over forty-five clients, maneuvering them is easy money, even if that includes manipulating two junkie non-violent offenders against the idea of getting a free public defender instead. It’s indeed a cool fresh start after the entire fiasco with HHM. So, when Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) invites him for lunch, he’s not happy with the familiar face that sends him flashbacks to an awful time. Howard offering him a chance to join his law firm is like pouring salt in Jimmy’s inner wound, and Jimmy’s not having it. What would be a better “screw you” for Howard than Jimmy sneaking outside his house at night and throwing bowling balls across the gate in an effort to destroy his car?
However, Jimmy is not the only soul who hasn’t moved away from the past. Kim (Rhea Seehorn) hasn’t given up with Mr. Acker (Barry Corbin), who refuses to leave his home for Mesa Verde. Her insistence to clean up messes like sweeping off broken beer bottles in a parking lot causes her to join forces with Jimmy once again to help the old man. There’s something about the Tucumcari homeowner that reminds her that she was once with the little guys that large companies like Mesa Verde trample on. No matter how legal the situation is, she sees the injustice over it and tries to make this right, even if this means possibly hurting her most important client.
Audiences will be displeased to see the lack of development with Mike. The fifth season has been four episodes in, and all Mike has achieved is taking his emotions out on anyone that provokes tragic memories on his mind. Nonetheless, this aspect manages to avoid overstaying as getting ganged up on once again by the thugs last episode grants him a trip to an undisclosed town in Mexico. It can only mean one thing: Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) wants him back.
After Gus’s dead drop locations are tipped off in favor of Lalo (Tony Dalton), Namaste kicks off season 5’s most exciting sequence yet. Intercutting between Gus’s two lines of business undergoing operations - scrubbing fryers clean and running away from Hank (Dean Norris) and the DEA, the key moment just illustrates how much Gus is in control over situations of varying severity. Losing half a million might be a blow, but Gus seems to have a plan that follows accordingly to it. Acceptable it is.
