User Reviews

This episode has a lot of parallels with the "Pine Barrens" episode of The Sopranos and "4 Days Out" & "Ozymandias" episodes of Breaking Bad, one of which being that Jimmy "cooked" for Kim. It really felt like a spiritual walkabout through all of Jimmy's failures. By the end he's leaving them all behind so that he can fully emerge as Saul now.

His old and crappy car, the one he'd used to drive to help those poor old ladies? Gone. In the previous episode Saul said to Howard that he's a God compared to him, and in this episode his "esteem" literally falls of a cliff. His mug, Kim's gift to him, shot through with a bullet, I hope not a parallel of Kim's demise through the hands of the cartel. In its place, a Davis & Main mug full of piss, symbolizing the perfect job he pissed away and moreover Jimmy not flushing the toilet in order to lose that same job. In addition, when Jimmy's lying on the desert an ant comes towards him, symbolizing the Cartel and its perils approaching him, a callback to episode 3 of this season when he throws his ice cream on the pavement and ants gather, in order to get in the car with Nacho and do Cartel business. Finally, the space blanket, representing Chuck. The episode ends with him tossing it and stepping on it, then it blows out of the frame. It shifts Jimmy's character from letting Chuck's "ghost" loom over him, to protecting Kim the only other person in the world he cares about, at any cost.

He's left everything behind now. He's fully in the game, Kim's in the game now, he's looked death in the face and lived to tell the tale, and nothing will ever be the same again. A masterpiece of Better call Saul and the Breaking Bad universe.

8:45, Jimmy talking to Kim, paraphrased, "You remember when you had that PD case with that kid whose parents kicked him out because he got caught with a joint?"

Is this a reference to Jesse? I think this is Vince and Peter telling us Kim knows Jesse.

Great, great episode!

This episode is brilliant. The parallels to Ozymandias and 4 Days Out, set in the desert that has come to feel like home in the universe Vince Gilligan has created. The space blanket. The death of the Suzuki, World's Best Lawyer mug, and Jimmy's remaining innocence. Mike's speech and finally realizing the real love Kim and Jimmy have for one another. Lalo's sinister, eerie evilness that he can convey with little dialogue. Kim's desperation. I can't stop thinking about this episode. I was truly on the edge of my seat, hungry for more. Oh, and I was scared for Kim before. I am now terrified.

Vince Gilligan is a genius. What he brings to the director table is nothing short of pure brilliance. He brings out the best in everyone. Rhea, Bob, Mike, all brought their A+ game. Emmy list will be long. The fear in Kim's eyes. The defeat of Jimmy. The incredible speech by Mike about going on for the ones we love. This is pure Breaking Bad esque stuff. Absolutely phenomenal.

53min long episode,one of the longest of 5th season has very little to say and seems like a filler.Just like episode Fly from Breaking Bad,it mostly deals with two characters trapped in one place trying to get rid of the imminent threat. The problem here is that we already know from Breaking Bad that Saul and Mike will survive therefore all the suspense is gone.To make things worse,the scenes of two of them walking through the desert just seem to go on and on with very little dialogue.Near the end Mike has his speech which seemed very out of character to me and like something I'd see while searching for motivational videos on youtube.It also seemed unnecesary-we already know Mike's intentions and how close he is to his family.Throughout the episode I was waiting for some climax or plot twist but it turned out to meet my predictions that I had in first 15 minutes-Mike and Saul will escape from the desert with no consequences.There was potential here for some real good drama yet this episode managed to do what no other Better Call Saul episode did-to be predictable and waste time.

This episode sums up the season: Just meandering aimlessly. Started off great but last few episodes are just boring. This episode started good but with only two episodes left in the season why waste time watching Mike and Saul traipse through the desert for most of the episode? Maybe they wanted a Pine Barrens type episode of Sopranos but this was not really a bonding episode like that was.

Mike is officially in the game. Kim is officially in the game. Saul Goodman is officially in the game.

Season 5 started as the birth of Saul Goodman, Jimmy's ultimate persona and one we've been waiting for. However, it took no longer than 2 episodes (Magic Man and 50% Off) for things to quickly spiral out of control. And this episode is the final straw. For the first time in forever, a space blanket is seen and even worn again on the show. And while it's complete coincidence for Mike to have that, it could have not been a better symbol for the episode. Fate has been sealed. The chains are off and nothing can stop this trainwreck. We all may hate Chuck, but he had a point. He was trying to warn us about what was going to come. And as much as we wanted to disagree with him (and to be fair, he really just made Jimmy's transformation more inevitable), we all knew he was right. Is as if that space blanket is Chuck himself telling his brother: "I told you so".

Everything in this episode is top notch. The passing and watching how quickly things unravel is very engaging. The music sets the tone perfectly, the score reflecting the desesperation and intensity of the scene, but also the song used in the middle of the episode is also great, almost as if the show acknowledges how ridiculous and slightly humorous the whole situation is. And the cinematography too in incredibly effective, especially during the shootout scenes and how brutal they are. The episode as a whole, while very different from the rest, is a blast to watch.

Kim's first ever interaction with the underworld (and with Lalo, of all people) is both tragic and exciting. As much as don't want it to be the case, this may very well be a window to Kim's destiny when Breaking Bad starts creeping in to this show, if it hasn't already. And Mike in this episode is also amaizing. It really does feel like he's fully commited to this lifestyle, as evidenced by his heartful speech to Jimmy, which also emphasises the intent of the episode.

There's no going back from this. This is the beginning of the end.

Last week Jimmy/Saul proclaimed himself god. So, what do you do when your character reaches a god like status? You bring him down. You make it hurt. And he falls flat on his face.

Jimmy is way out of his game in this episode. All the trouble and misfortune he goes through is forshadowed by his exchange with Kim. She is scared to death. He tries to calm her down. But deep down, he is just as scared.

And their fear come true, when Jimmy is almost killed, saved by the last guy you'd expect in the middle of the desert. Mike.

With the exception of the Kim and Lalo scene, the rest of the episode plays out as a play with two men, carried by the superb performances of Jonathan Banks and Bob Odenkirk. They're far away from everyone else. No signal. And they're hunted.

And Jimmy is broken by the end. Without Mike he would not get the strength to get up. But as we close on the two men moving forward, we have to ask: "Did Jimmy risk this all to be back with Kim? Or did Saul risk everything for the money?"

We finally got an episode that was layered and action packed all at once in a way very reminiscent of Breaking Bad.

I am very scared for Kim! Going to Lalo, while understandable, will prove to be her tragic mistake; which, I believe will be the why of her not being in Jimmy's life come Breaking Bad timeline...but it was not only her tragic mistake-it was in response to Saul's/Jimmy's even MORE tragic Mistake! He called Saul instead of stayed Jimmy with Kim...of course, as he pushed through this as Saul Goodman, he will surely exalt/and proudly own his Saul persona....but at what cost? $100,000. Was it worth it? Hubris was Walt's tragic downfall; Greed will be Jimmy's. GREAT TRAGEDY!! 10/10.

In any other situation this would have been an amazing episode, but is suffers from one major flaw, we know both protagonists survive so it's totally lacking in suspense, unless your lucky enough to never have seen BB. So I just feel it is going on too long on something that won't really move the narrative forward.

I love BCS, however this is by far one of the weakest episodes. The most unrealistic and poorly researched aspects of the episode is drinking urine to prevent dehydration. Mike would have known you cannot hydrate yourself using urine due to the salt content. Jimmy's need for encouragement last minute felt tacked on. The final kill, while important for demonstrating Jimmy's developed strength and persistence, was more of a forced resolution to the shootout earlier and feels saccharine and cheap with the execution. Oh and the "the engine is shot... Literally" is a genuinely awful joke and uncharacteristic of Mike. Overall, the episode felt that it served it's purpose as an important moment in the series while also being insubstantial and had an unnecessarily over sentimental tone at times.