Better Call Saul Season 6 Episode 8 "Point and Shoot" Review: Make Life Happen
Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist
I use this weekly recap to talk about the big idea of the week’s Better Call Saul episode (and we’ll get there), but first, I must take a step back and say:
What a show.
Often, to many a viewer’s complaint (not this viewer, I should say), Better Call Saul takes its time to get from Point A to Point B. That was never truer than episodes 4 through 7, when we could see the road in front of us, but the show was so patient to paint a picture before it was ready to unveil.
But man, when the show hits the gas, it takes your breath away.
I needed a ventilator to make it through this episode, that is how often I forgot to breathe, from start to finish. For a prequel series where you know the fate of most of the principal characters, it’s a feat that simply cannot be replicated by another producing team.
This episode will be remembered by its non-stop tension that resembled a 200 mph freight train, but the big idea of the episode is not those tense moments in Jimmy’s apartments or in Gus’s laundromat, but in the quiet cold open and the somber closing scene.
Don’t let life happen. Make life happen.
The cold open gave us shots of a gorgeous sunset on a beach in parts unknown, with Howard’s shoes floating in the ocean. This was undoubtedly where Howard wished he could be in his golden years, with his wife, his career accomplishments behind him, and peace in front of him.
Howard, with his baked in tan, looked like a man who lived on the beach, but in reality lived in the office, trying to live up to his father and later, his famous and more talented law partner Charles McGill.
Parts of him will stay on the beach: his polished shoes, his wedding ring, and of course, his Jaguar with the infamous “Namaste” license plate, a greeting often told in yoga classes in the states that usually portends the zen-like state you yearn to achieve through yoga.
His body however, will be buried under a foundation of a meth lab that will bring ruin to many, next to one of the most cold blooded killers his world had ever housed.
Howard didn’t do anything to deserve this fate, but he passed on many chances to actively create his destiny. Howard reacted to Jimmy and Kim’s malfeasance instead of acting proactively to stop or contain it. Howard was playing defense the entire time. The one time he played offense, in a boxing ring, was just to spar, to hit Jimmy a little bit, in the hopes he would teach Jimmy a lesson.
Compare this to Gus Fring, who prides himself on being prepared, being two steps of his enemies. He too, was initially playing defense to Lalo’s offense, instead of being proactive.
In the end, Gus won again, by playing offense, and also by being prepared with the gun he hid in the lab a few episodes prior. Gus didn’t wait for Mike, he wasn’t careful, he risked his life in away that made Mike boiling mad.
Gus reminded Mike: he was in charge, he handled it, he beat Lalo (who finally was caught off-guard and reacted instead of acted).
Howard was never in charge, not of his firm, not of his marriage (where his wife dictated the terms of their engagement), and certainly not in charge of Jimmy and Kim. He didn’t think two moves ahead. He didn’t think he needed to. He had his life already planned. He always lands on his feet, as he told Kim and Jimmy in the previous episode. He would land on his feet again, reacting to what the world threw him, instead of setting his own charter.
Right now, we’re seeing Jimmy playing defense as well, in this episode as well as this entire season. It was Kim’s idea to proceed with the plot against Howard when they saw the retired judge with a broken arm. Jimmy just wanted to walk away. Kim was the one who wanted to set the tone and be proactive.
Jimmy reacted under pressure from Lalo to not assassinate Lalo’s enemy by suggesting Kim instead. Was it cowardice out of fear for his own safety, or bravery to get Kim out of the house and leave his fate to Lalo? I don’t think it is a clear answer at this point, besides recent history suggesting he would only be brave when it comes to Kim.
At this point, we won’t know for certain. What we do know is that Jimmy is at his best when he’s setting the tone, when he’s playing offense against unsuspecting dupes like Howard.
But Jimmy hasn’t played offense in a while. He doesn’t seem to want it anymore. We know for certain he would have never pulled the trigger against Gus’s body double like Kim was ready to. As Mike said earlier this season, he’s not made of the hard stuff like Kim.
Will Jimmy have a similar fate as Howard? Not in the near term, as we know from Breaking Bad.
But will Gene Takovich, the ultimate reactive recluse, have a similar fate?
That’s the question we have been waiting 6 seasons for an answer to.
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Again, what an unbelievable episode. This episode will be haunting me until next Monday at 9pm EST.
I’m writing this recap an hour after finishing the live airing, and the line that’s sticking out to me the most of Mike’s command to Jimmy and Kim towards the end:
“I need to impress upon you, none of this ever happened, none of it”
Is that how Saul Goodman was able to get up in the morning during the Breaking Bad years? His years loving Kim Wexler never happened?
If this is truly foreshadowing, I can’t think of what could be more heart-breaking.
