Seeing James McGill as a child during the episode’s teaser was certainly a surprise. I’ve wondered how a jump that takes a main character and turns him into a kid would work considering many of the flashbacks that have been used before on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The flashback worked well; we were able to see an example of what Chuck said to Kim in episode five of season two: Rebecca, about Jimmy robbing from his dad’s register when he worked for him. This shows that Chuck wasn’t lying to Kim about Jimmy and it further emphasizes how Chuck feels that Jimmy is unfit to be a lawyer.
At first, Jimmy seemed like an honest kid (even though he did a little “reading” instead of sweeping). He warned his dad that the customer asking for money at the register was lying (his story seemed pretty convincing too, at least to such a good guy like Jimmy’s dad), but his dad wouldn’t listen to Jimmy and his sympathy toward the guy got the best of him, causing him to fall for his lie. This episode also seemed to show a parallel between Jimmy as a kid and Jimmy as an adult. Jimmy tells Kim that he wants to run his business his own way and in the show’s teaser, we see how if Jimmy’s dad listened to him, he wouldn’t have been robbed. However, by seeing Jimmy rob from the till, we get a sense of the kind of person Jimmy can be when he does something his way, and that is someone who breaks the rules. We see the person Jimmy has the potential to be in a world of "wolves and sheep" as the customer put it, and that is the wolf.
In the show's podcast for this episode, they make some excellent points: Although Jimmy did steal from his dad, there was still some ambiguity in it. He did, after all, tell his dad the customer was a con man, but his dad was too much of a saint to listen, so his dad gave him the money anyway. Chuck does tell Kim that his father was a saint, but the problem with saints is that they have to live down here with all the sinners. So Jimmy's frustration with his dad could stem from how his dad is willfully blind.
I feel like that opening scene had some interesting psychological depth. Perhaps some of Jimmy's willingness to bend the rules is a result of his father being taken advantage of by his overly the top Mr. Rogers attitude.
Speaking of breaking the rules, seeing Jimmy behave in all those outlandish ways when trying to get fired from Davis and Main and get a bonus was not only brilliantly edited, but just flat out hilarious! He needed the money to start his own business with Kim, but he couldn't get that bonus by simply quitting; he had to get fired. You could tell his boss Cliff sensed trouble the second he first saw him dressed in his first colored suit. He took Cliff’s advice to blow off steam to a whole other level by buying that bagpipe and playing it at work which I had no idea could sound so obnoxious. Him buying a really loud juicer for the office and "accidentally" spilling juice onto a coworker when trying to jab fruit into it worked well too. Then, there was that moment when he tried to teach the janitor how to vacuum. Let's not forget Jimmy's announcement to the entire office that he was the one who hasn't been flushing the toilets.
It was great that Jimmy’s idea to act the way he did stemmed from a giant inflatable tube man. I think it was the tie that really got his attention. The inflatable tube man had some really flashy colors and as Bob Odenkirk, the actor who plays Saul says, “The tube man reminds him that maybe a part of him likes to be flashy and stick out." Jimmy, in all his flashy colors, released his inner Saul.
I feel like the tube man also seems somewhat of a call back (or call forward if you will) to future Saul’s inflatable statue of liberty. The inflatable tube man also reminded me of a kind of symbolic green light for Jimmy like the literal green light Walter crosses in season 3, episode 4 of Breaking Bad, that was symbolic of him going back into the business. In that sense, you can also see this episode as the beginning of the end. Jimmy in all his colorful suits showed how Jimmy can be when he's himself.
Now that Jimmy has made his way back into the Nail Salon with style and a new voice mail (it’s a real number by the way with the same voicemail: (505) 842-5662), he feels optimistic about the road ahead. When Kim decides not to take the job and to be a practitioner with Jimmy, it shows how Kim is willing to maintain both her career and her relationship with Jimmy. It will be interesting to see where this takes Jimmy and Kim's relationship which has had some strenuous and heart warming moments.
It was great to see Jimmy work with Mike again, and it’s always fun to hear what Jimmy has to say when helping his clients, such as him saying in this episode that maybe the gun that had Tuco’s prints fell from a passing bird’s beak, and Tuco happened to pick it up. We can see how Mike felt conflicted through the entire statement and that Mike wants what is best for his daughter-in-law and granddaughters, Stacey and Kaylee. His family is, after all, the most important thing in his life, and he wants to make sure they are safe. He even goes as far as buying them a new house so that Stacey could feel safe (the same house we see Kaylee and Stacey live in during season three, episode 13 of Breaking Bad). When Mike parks outside of the restaurant where he made the deal, we are left wondering what he has in mind. Mike still has a serious grudge against Tio since he threatened his family and he seems to have something in mind for the Salamanca family which I’m sure will be very interesting.
On a last note, I think I was born in the wrong generation, at least music wise. Hearing the song Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest at the beginning was great. Oh, the feels...
SCORE: Colorful ...Also, 9/10
